[2:01] good evening tonight is thursday august 20th and we do have a quorum so call this meeting to order due to the [2:09] current federal and state emergency declarations the minnesota directive to residents to stay at home [2:15] and guidance about limiting person-to-person contact due to the covid pandemic the work session of the edina [2:22] publix edina public school district school board is being conducted online in [2:27] accordance with minnesota statutes 13d 021 persons may monitor this meeting [2:33] from a remote location by the district's youtube channel school board members are reminded to [2:38] remind you to mute their microphone or phone when they are not speaking school board members wishing to speak should [2:44] unmute their microphone so i can see who is waiting to speak and then wait to be recognized by the chair i will [2:50] determine the order in which board members wishing to speak will be recognized before if john review the agenda i [2:56] wanted to address a few things going on in the community we have received some feedback [3:01] about the fact that we are doing virtual meetings and not meeting in person while asking our teachers and staff to [3:07] come in i want to let the community know that our boardroom is under construction right now and we're actively trying to [3:13] find a place where we can have our board meetings in person allow the public to gather and also send [3:19] send it to households virtually intimate that we cannot ask our teachers and staff to do [3:25] something different than we are willing to do as leaders second as many have already seen a [3:30] letter from the board was distributed to our school district community and appeared in the sun current today i just want to take a quick moment to [3:37] clarify why we sent this letter because we learned that unintentionally the message of this letter has caused [3:43] some concern and confusion the letter was written simply to acknowledge and support the notion that we [3:49] your board your staff [4:01] erica and john you've been muted [4:10] can you hear now i will start again [4:16] good evening tonight is thursday august 20th and we do have a forum so i will call this meeting to order due [4:22] to current federal estate we heard all that yeah i think is [4:28] gets to the point about meeting you sorry erica okay um we wanted to take a quick moment [4:34] to clarify why we sent this letter because we have learned that unintentionally the message of this letter has caused some concerning [4:41] confusion for some the letter was written simply to acknowledge and support the notion that we [4:46] your board our staff teachers students and families are all in this together we know this pandemic has brought to not [4:54] just our school community but to our jobs our home our livelihood the letter was intended to encourage all [5:00] of us as we that we will get through this together and finally i wanted to explain [5:05] quickly to the community how our meetings work and how we operate as a board we do have multiple board committees that meet [5:11] quite often to move the work of the district forward however these committees have no decision-making authority [5:17] nor do they represent the entire board the only time the board can meet in full is if the meeting has been posted to the [5:24] public and the public has the opportunity to attend either in person or virtually it is against the law first to meet [5:30] without doing it publicly i will now move to approving the agenda [5:38] um i would like to make a motion or i would like to let you know before we prove the agenda [5:43] that i would like to move our legislative action committee portion and board meaning agenda review [5:50] to the end of the meeting um so can i have a motion to improve the agenda with the changes as mentioned [5:57] still moved a second second so the agenda is approved um with moving [6:04] lac and the board meeting review to the end of the agenda [6:09] um so john will you please review the agenda with us tonight yes uh so um we will spend [6:17] time reading some feedback from stakeholders about the 2020 2020's we will then talk about the 2021 [6:25] uh school year in discussion under action we need to approve the change in calendar [6:31] for early release days and and then if the board sees that we [6:38] will do approval of the school year planning and then as [6:43] and then at the end of that we will go into discussion around legislative action committee and [6:48] board meeting and gender review great thank you john um first on our agenda is stakeholder [6:54] feedback and um we do have a representative sample of emails that we were given permission to read [7:00] and they were chosen to reflect the different perspectives that have been mailed to email to us and so i'll turn over to [7:06] john to actually read the letters thank you um i have been a special education teacher in the district for [7:12] over 15 years and i'm also a parent in the community i'm emailing you in regards to email that our union [7:18] president tom mcconnell sent to the district school board his email was not representative of the entire union that [7:24] he is supposed to support he based on a survey that he sent out in which only a small percent of staff [7:29] actually filled up i myself didn't even see this survey also i think it's very inappropriate for him to be inserting [7:35] and sharing opinions when he is supposed to be representing everyone in the union it's frustrating that it seems as if [7:41] only one point of view is being represented i work with some of the most vulnerable students in distance [7:47] for many of my students and their families i feel strong that students need to be provided with face-to-face instruction [7:53] the safest way possible this fall and i know that we can accomplish that this might help that our hybrid model for instruction continues for this fall [8:00] and then we continue to make strides towards a full-time in-person model sooner rather than later [8:06] um dear uh public united public school board members we are ready today to express [8:11] our concern for our own health and well-being as well as the health and well-being and equitable education of many of our [8:16] multilingual students and families the district operates under a hybrid model of learning we have strong [8:22] concerns this will put our ml students and families at a district distinct advantage concern one [8:28] multilingual families did not have equitable and timely access to critical district information regarding their [8:33] choice of hybrid or eba while there are over 60 languages represented in public schools translated [8:39] google forms and voicemails went out in somali and spanish only a language tab was not adequate to serve [8:47] families many of whom are not comfortable with technology use or do not have ready access to technology [8:53] families just speak languages other than english expansion smiling do not receive critical communication untimely matter [8:58] we believe that it is possible that many families still need to be contacted via the language line and have simply been [9:04] marked as hybrid if they did not respond on time preferred methods of communication by our not used the somali language is [9:11] spoken by many people written and read by few yet the communication sent out in somali was a [9:17] written email concern too communities of color are disproportionately affected by the covent 19 pandemic [9:23] the majority of our edina multilingual students are students of color in minnesota people of color are nine of [9:29] coping 19 and a disproportionately higher rate than their white counterparts in minnesota children of [9:35] color have higher rates of contract in cobit 19. in light of this information we need to be [9:40] absolutely certain that our 9ml students of color have accurate information in their primary language to make an informed decision about [9:46] whether or not to attend school during the pandemic concern three lower level level one two [9:53] and three english learners will not receive an equitable education without dedicated content and multilingual eva teachers assigned [10:00] to teach them eva students will simply be added to hybrid section at the secondary level requiring [10:05] students to dial into the classes or otherwise engage in asynchronous activities [10:10] eva ml students will not have the opportunity to work one-on-one with teachers without their [10:15] own eda sections and individualized google meets were the norm this past spring during distance [10:21] learning socio-economic barriers made it such that wealthy and privileged students like eba and reliable internet and [10:27] opportunities to hire tutors like working with in-person classes the other half of ml students who are [10:33] learning online will not be able to adequately access help or one-on-one google meets to [10:38] address their needs please consider the needs of some of our most vulnerable students in your decision-making process [10:43] thank you sincerely members of the eps multilingual learners team [10:50] i'm a teacher at the high school and writing over my concern of students and staff returning to school [10:56] in two weeks i was lucky enough to receive an accommodation for this fall due to health reasons however the majority of my co-workers [11:01] who asked for accommodations were not granted them many of these people have serious health conditions and are loved the choice of [11:07] either losing their income or potentially losing their life this is an impossible choice in the meeting the other day someone said we [11:14] are no longer looking at prevention we are looking at mitigation we know people will get sick this is [11:19] unacceptable to me the safety measure that our district is putting in place is not sufficient and as amazing as our kids are they struggle [11:25] with complying with safety requests such as proper mass spurring and social distancing i hosted the [11:31] indiana volleyball camp in person in july we repeatedly had to tell players to distance and even had to remind them [11:37] to not share water bottles they were trying and were always respectful when we asked [11:42] but they just kept forgetting and naturally congregated right next to each other gave high fives etc [11:48] i mean i imagined this classrooms would be the same believe me i would love to be back in [11:54] work you know in person like a normal year but these are not normal times i really think as a district we can [12:00] provide a quality online education to a time that students and staff can be guaranteed safety we learned a lot from the spring and we [12:06] have a lot of ways now for students to collaborate together socialize and be successful online if kids can't safely be next to each [12:13] other share materials et cetera what will in person school be like they could do couldn't do online [12:20] i know that science would love to conduct labs in person on in-person days but there [12:25] won't be time to clean all the materials between classes so this means you either can't do the lab or multiple kids are touching the [12:32] same services please consider what other districts are doing starting the year in distance learning then have phases of going back [12:38] to in person as cases and numbers decrease too many questions have not been answered and there are too many unknowns to have [12:45] an effective in-person class experience i love love love teaching edina but i'm so worried for my students and [12:51] colleagues please don't put them at risk thank you for your consideration feel free to contact me with any [12:56] questions or follow up [13:01] next one dear school board members we know you have been working very hard to design options for 20 21 school year in an [13:07] unprecedented time however i have concerns about this above this email and what the intended message [13:13] this email is trying to convey i know we are asking for teachers and staff to teach in person [13:21] there are many workers around the world even the diamond don't have the option to work virtually doctors nurses retail grocery [13:27] warehouse workers postal service etc not all workers have the option to work remotely so while this is framed as a [13:34] big ass this is also a big ask of many people around the world to show up to their job the burden on parents to work and manage [13:40] kids with their virtual schedule and mental health issues is a lot it's a lot asked [13:46] even though you will apply lessons learned from the spring virtual learning for us and our child is zero learning since i [13:52] don't understand what the meaning behind this email message was trying to convey it comes [13:57] across as a setup that eps will reverse course even before school starts to go all virtual [14:03] just as bloomington and roseville public schools announced however there is a reason why we chose [14:09] edina and paid an exorbitant amount of property taxes to have a world-class education which cannot be accomplished virtually [14:15] for our child for an extended amount of time unfortunately cova is not going away until likely a vaccine is created [14:22] if we've moved 100 virtual it could likely be for the rest of the school year our child has severely regressed since [14:28] march there was no in person from mid-march to may no in person for esy and this year is tbd our child is [14:36] not learned virtually at all her teachers and staff are wonderful but she cannot learn virtually the school decides to go [14:43] virtually this will set our child back again we have seen severe regression in her learning and mental health since march [14:50] we have a mental health crisis and an education crisis if vps decides to go 100 virtual will [14:56] you offer an extra year of eligibility every month and milestone is critical to us and she will age out [15:03] of the 18 to 20 year old program my child will age out of her programs and will be shortchanged by perhaps a [15:09] year on all that she can learn every day month year not being in an in-person learning environment lessons [15:16] for the chance to have an infinite life 100 distance learning is starting to impact women we do not [15:22] have enough women in leadership and top dollar earning roles we are already seeing women taking a [15:29] step back from their jobs and careers to manage distance learning well i'm while i'm fortunate in that my [15:34] spouse is 50 50 on everything that is not the case for many new york times article just report that [15:39] still in this age it's up to the mods to handle distance learning and companies are seeing an exodus of women [15:45] having to take lead to manage distance learning this will have severe consequences for years to come with women having equal pay and [15:52] equal opportunity for top money leaking positions i feel that the unions are pressuring schools into making decisions that are [15:58] their best interest only as i stated in point number one there are many frontline workers that have to show up and work [16:04] special accommodations should be made for students just as in companies if social [16:10] distancing is followed there's no reason why parents choose that a certain population can't be seen [16:15] in the personal instruction i'm dismayed at the double standard i see groups of kids [16:20] all the time out across edina 20 members of the high school dance team and car wash [16:26] mountain biking lacrosse team practicing in the field across our street kids playing a baseball game kids swimming in meeting high week in [16:33] just as close proximity as a classroom how is that my child may not receive the education she deserves but groups of [16:39] kids can still be in organized sports also all of her adaptive sports and wreck opportunities have been cancelled [16:45] how is it that fair it's not most at-risk children need to be in school the most are being [16:50] impacted the greatest basically the state is letting 20 to 30 year olds dictate the education of our [16:56] children the state has done nothing but sit by why are we being punished by having bars open and college kids not [17:02] following the rules again the email message you sent was very unclear as the [17:08] bottom line message you are trying to get across and this already stressful time has created another layer of uncertainty [17:19] hello my daughter is going into second grade at highlands i wanted to reach out and give you my input for the upcoming [17:24] school year we understand the health and safety of staff and teachers is paramount for students to be in person as much as [17:30] possible this is imperative to their academic and social well-being i believe there are ways to be creative and [17:36] innovative to help this occur i hope that the school is taking into consideration all student needs [17:41] our students need to have in-person learning diane public schools community and school board have stated [17:47] that their commitment is our unwavering commitment to educational excellence in our district's vision for each and every [17:52] student discover their possibilities and thrive all distance learning will not be a thriving environment for my children [17:58] or most children i urge you to please listen to your community and continue with your hybrid option [18:09] as i contemplate teaching in the hybrid model on daunted teaching in person is a full-time job [18:15] teaching in an online setting proved to be more than a full-time job last spring i'm honestly not sure how i'll be able [18:21] to do both at the same time stressful bonuses however it's not what keeps me up at night i'm confident that [18:26] i'll be able to figure it out and find a solution however imperfect but here's what i can't figure out i [18:32] can't figure out how to protect myself from catching a virus based on the current hybrid model to high school i estimate that in my [18:39] classroom alone i'll be in an indoor setting with somewhere between 50 to 70 students every day [18:44] each of those students will be in five or six additional classrooms where they'll be in contact with 50 to 70 different people every day [18:51] this puts me in a circle of contact with hundreds maybe even thousands of others the school board recently said sent out [18:57] a statement saying that cares deeply about our students teachers and staff [19:03] many teachers that i have spoken with are not feeling cared for right now as i talk to my colleague about the [19:08] situation i hear overwhelming overwhelming anxiety colleagues have spoken this [19:13] aid they feel like they sacrificial lands and pawns we've heard precious little information [19:18] about how our safety is being insured other than that we are following this department of health guidelines but nowhere [19:25] on the minnesota department of health website do i see that being in contact with so many people and in our standing is a good idea [19:32] undyne public schools is blessed with an extraordinary staff consistently goes above and beyond to deliver exceptional instruction to our [19:38] students the fact that so many of us are feeling undervalued and appreciated and like we're being thrust [19:44] into an unsafe situation should give you pause we know our students we know our classrooms and we're not feeling safe [19:51] please let's figure out a better solution this doesn't put so many staff and students at risk thank you [19:58] this is this is excuse me this year is my 19th year working for united public schools as a [20:04] teacher as a specialist i teach multilingual learners we met some of my students last winter [20:10] when we attended the board meeting i have worked in most buildings across the district i love my students and my job i would do anything to help my [20:17] students achieve success in life believe me i'm speaking from my heart i'm also and my daughter attended eps [20:24] we are a family of immigrants after graduating from edina in 2014 my daughter attended an ivy league [20:31] university this year she was forwarded fulbright to teach english and austria she also works [20:36] for a government nonprofit exposing corruption and tech world all these successes would not have been [20:42] possible without our amazing eps teachers starting with kindergarten and ending with every single one teacher [20:47] at ehs personally i come from russia i grew up in the soviet union to understand the mentality of the [20:53] soviet union all you need to know is that during world war ii known in russia as the [20:59] great patriotic war the country used human lives as a shield this is how the war was won the soviet [21:05] union continued to use this strategy in every area of human life life is worth nothing in russia not then [21:11] and not now a few years ago in 2010 my mother walked out of [21:16] muck out of our house she was not seen since police never looked for her a hiker [21:21] found her in the woods four months later i do not need to tell you what this event did to my family my father [21:27] my sister myself i do not wish anyone to go through this type of anguish my father had a heart condition very [21:33] tearing our family he was taken to a hospital in russia he was hospitalized there for two weeks and then released he needed an aortic [21:40] valve replaced but this hospital is not a cardiac hospital so they did nothing for him did not even [21:45] tell the family what the condition was we found a private doctor but it was too late i'm 2014. [21:52] the same month my daughter graduated from high school why am i sharing these personal details with you i moved this [21:58] country what impressed me here was the government or people in power cared for human life that was the defining moment of my life [22:05] of course i'm older now and not as naive what is happening in this country now i do not understand [22:10] i have a variety of medical conditions that put me in a higher risk of death or complications from quote 19 [22:16] so does my husband yet my accommodations request was not approved as an immigrant family we have no other [22:21] relatives or support system in this country my daughter will alone will be alone should anything happen to us [22:28] i'm asking you to protect united public school students teachers and staff to start the school year online do not treat us like disposable items [22:34] for a science experiment people are your most valuable asset we cannot teach from the grave [22:40] [Music] [22:47] to the making center and i've heard from other parents the school board's meeting tonight discuss the potential of a full distance learning model [22:53] i'm extremely concerned by this and would like to submit this letter to the school board's consideration i [22:58] fully appreciated the district's prior prior approach of giving parents the choice between a hybrid model and 100 [23:04] distance i was honored to live in such a progressive district and felt my hard-earned tax dollars [23:09] and frankly as i run a children's products company that is dedicated to safety and has participated in lobbying [23:15] and influencing regulation on state federal levels so the decision inspired me personally [23:20] and professionally that said i'm really disturbed by the possibility of 100 discerning and can't tell you that my [23:27] daughter would be extremely unhappy with that outcome that would not be in her best interest nor ours as a family [23:33] at the end of the last school year she stated that she had trouble learning and we saw the impacts directly as she [23:39] completed tasks that were not highly engaging and spent the rest of the time before and sleeping although with planning i [23:45] expect that would be better this year i don't see the outcome changing much learning and working at home 100 [23:51] of the time is difficult for everyone including us professionals everyone i speak with is having a hard [23:57] time but at least as adults we have better coping mechanisms children do not and school is the very [24:03] place that helps them develop to be well-run individuals that are able to handle a variety of situations [24:08] not just those situations learned on home in fact the largest concern i have is [24:14] the impact on social development and emotional well-being we saw the differences and she even confirmed through several discussions [24:21] that she needs the interactions and recognized the impact to her these kids go to school not only [24:27] for textbook learning social interaction learning of group norms and building of [24:34] networks school is a critical aspect of their emotional and mental well-being and there were far too many days where [24:40] we were concerned about our state of mind we're just counting the days until the school year ended [24:45] we need to balance the physical emotional and social needs of our children is my belief the choice between hybrid and distance [24:51] learning was and is the best solution this gives parents the ability to assess the needs of a specific child in their [24:57] household and do what is best well i understand is likely a large task to develop this learning model [25:03] is necessary cobia 19 is not going away so it's imperative that we start now with our new norms [25:09] we need our children getting the physical social emotional support they need we need to allow parents like my husband [25:14] and i to begin getting back to normal this begins at home we need the district's support for our children to [25:20] learn the hybrid model and get out of the house to a lot of interactions with others [25:26] this is what community is about we need the school district to share their part of this burden [25:31] and we will share ours as parents i know it's hard i run a company that had to figure out how to operate this [25:37] environment we need you to do your part and not take the easiest way up please this is important to us as [25:43] parents professionals and community members [25:49] if you're looking for a parent representative to help out i know i carry my advice as a parent and [25:55] a professional not that of an educator however i believe if you invite the right viewpoints to the table you will get the [26:00] best outcome for kids staff in our community i have been denied a [26:05] mathematics teacher for the past 27 years i have written you earlier this month and now after being informed of my [26:11] teaching placement for this upcoming school year i'm deeply concerned i'm not only concerned for the safety of my new students but also for my family [26:18] as i write this day before the official start of my 28th year in edina the one thing that i have learned since the [26:23] middle of march is that i miss being in the classroom and i miss seeing my students in person that means that i requested to ask for [26:29] accommodation i could continue teaching remotely from my home i have medical condition [26:35] my wife has an autoimmune disorder my doctor has recommended that it would be in my best interest to [26:40] teach remotely i have provided this tissue with my doctor's letter i wasn't asked to provide the letter yet my assignment for [26:46] the upcoming year is the hybrid model as of now my main complaint is that employees were not informed of how these [26:52] decisions were made who were the people that decided who was hybrid was an ebay teacher what was the [26:58] criteria that was used to guide this process how many teachers requested eba how many teachers are granted ebay and [27:04] what is the process for asking for other accommodations after teaching them on tuesday night i'm asking you to follow the guidelines [27:10] that have been put in place by governor of wall street school districts must allow school staff whose health risks who have members of [27:17] their household whose health is at risk to work from home to the extent possible myself and my colleagues have shown that [27:24] teaching from home works and is safe for everyone one thing that i know [27:29] is if i teach in the hybrid model this year i will do everything in my power to keep my students safe [27:35] but well all of my students and their families are the same all this fighters needs for them for [27:40] there to be one large gathering in someone's cabin one pool party or one graduation party to infect a few [27:46] and bring it into my classroom and as of now the only ppe that i'm going to be provided as an essential workers of [27:51] masculine leader let's consider a decision to start school here in hybrid for the beginning of the school year [27:56] thank you thank you [28:03] so thank you for everyone for reaching out to us um providing me with your comp plus for your comments um like i said that was a representative [28:10] sample of some emails we received we did receive more [28:16] so thank you um we're going to move on to our discussion for the night and [28:22] since we moved the legislative action committee and board meeting agenda review to the end um [28:27] we're going to start with the 2020 2021 school year planning and i'm going to turn it over to john to [28:34] walk us through this thank you charlenberg members of the board um [28:39] so we did meet with you on [28:45] august 6th the models and uh gave some details of the hybrid [28:51] model of course a lot of work has been done since august 6th [28:57] and just for a background the hennepin county numbers also changed [29:04] today they give us those numbers on thursday last week it was at 23.77 cases for 10 [29:11] um this uh the reading today was 21.76 so the news with that is that it is coming [29:18] down um so that is as background we've continued working [29:23] primarily on the staffing of the um of the of the hybrid model and of course [29:29] the eda um at the last uh board meeting and also through some emails [29:35] there were some questions that came up that i thought we should just review and one of the questions was [29:41] related to talent development and i'm going to turn it over to [29:47] deb richards and jody d st hubert to provide what talent development would look like [29:54] in in those in those models so deb can i give it to you yes [30:01] um good evening and thank you chair ellenberg and members of the board in your um in your packet i've listed [30:09] some of the features of advanced academics this coming year and i just want to start by saying that [30:16] we're really um well poised to meet the needs of all of our learners and for many years we've collaborated [30:24] together and use a common learning platform schoology to provide content [30:32] and to provide different videos for kids um when they need some additional help [30:39] so i guess um if i just kind of review the the main points is that [30:44] advanced academics will be delivered virtually this year and that will allow us to service both [30:51] the students who are in the virtual academy along with the students are in the hybrid [30:57] when schedules align the students will be able to participate [31:02] together a couple of things we learned from the fall is that um [31:09] students really wanted to have interaction with their peers so we're going to be intentional this [31:15] year of allowing the kids to work in groups [31:20] and making sure that they have those peer connections another thing that we heard is that [31:27] students really wanted that individual time with their teacher so we're going [31:33] to continue providing opportunities for kids to meet individually with [31:38] their advanced academics teacher and provide feedback and the other thing we that [31:46] they really talked about is um here what we learned from last spring was [31:52] that parents really wanted to make ensure that their kids were growing so again we're going to be very [31:58] intentional of making sure that families understand what the [32:03] learning targets are and where their child is at in terms of [32:09] progress towards those learning targets i'm not sure if you if you know we're [32:15] going to ensure there's rigor and challenge we're going to continue to go at the same pace that we normally did [32:21] um the teachers will be providing live synchronous lessons i want to be [32:29] careful because that might not happen four days out of the week there might be some times when flipped instruction [32:35] works and we again want to collaborate with the classroom teacher so we want to make [32:42] sure that when the students are in the regular homeroom class when the aaa teachers [32:48] are available virtually that we are that it is a good fit for the other [32:55] students that are in the class we want to be mindful of that so again it might be individually [33:00] delivered a little differently between grade levels or sites [33:07] so specifics are yet to come i guess as we as we experience what this is going to look [33:13] like what it's going to feel like and how teachers respond to this but i think we're [33:19] well poised again just to make sure that um that these students will have equal [33:25] opportunity to services regardless of the learning model that they've chosen and that they'll be direct um [33:33] interaction with an advanced academic speaker i think another really exciting thing [33:38] about this is in the past i think classroom teachers often [33:43] um were not as involved in what was actually happening in advanced academics so we have an [33:48] opportunity this year for classroom teachers to see what their students are working on [33:56] in advance academics i think the other thing that we learned is that we talked a lot about engagement [34:04] and how do we engage students and our team has been working on creating some project-based lessons and some other [34:11] ways for kids to engage and so those same resources will be available to the classroom teacher [34:17] so um during their math and reading block if there are other students that are ready for some other type of [34:25] activities that will be available to um anyone in the classroom that is is ready [34:31] for that so there'll be again some sharing of resources and um this allows us to be a little innovative [34:37] and to try um some new things so we're really excited as a team [34:43] so maybe i'll if any of you have questions you take questions [34:50] [Music] on this topic i have a [34:58] um i just have one quick question i think this is i think this is great did you um share any resources or [35:05] communication with the minnesota council of gifted and talented 2 and what other districts are [35:10] are doing is this a model that's being used across the board or is this unique and [35:16] just a little bit more about kind of tapping those resources that we have at a state level [35:22] um so are you asking if i've i've interacted with my colleagues in [35:29] other districts to see how they're delivering services yeah that's the question yes thank you i [35:34] i feel like different all the districts are kind of in the same spot that we are they're still trying to figure this out and i'm not [35:41] sure that um you know if you um have a school district that has a school within a [35:46] school you know that kind of presents maybe some different opportunities but [35:51] um so i guess the answer is not really i i i wouldn't i haven't [35:58] explored that just because i feel like we're still trying to figure out what this looks like and i feel like they're kind of in [36:04] the same spot we are yeah but i know there'll be future conversations and this isn't to say that [36:10] we won't um adjust what we're doing right we might find that [36:15] um this looks really good on paper but it isn't what's best for kids and we will [36:20] adjust accordingly so we'll certainly be i meet regularly with [36:26] coordinators from around the metro area and so that certainly will be a topic of conversation [36:32] okay great thanks deb [36:39] other questions um i just have a quick clarification question [36:45] so what i read in my packet was that for advanced learning math and reading that that would be [36:53] delivered if you are in the hybrid model when you're at school it will be [36:59] delivered through technology is that right correct [37:06] and so um and they will be in the classroom while the other students are learning [37:12] their math or their reading or doing their math assignments they will be um in a synchronous likely i i heard you [37:20] say it's not necessarily but likely in a synchronous class um [37:25] interacting with their advanced learner teacher is that right yes that's correct [37:32] okay but they won't be um having to do all the i i you know we've been struggling with [37:39] making sure that it's just not more work yes absolutely so the advanced [37:44] academic teachers are their core math or reading teacher so they are supplanting [37:50] what's happening in the regular classroom and that will continue okay [37:57] i just wanted to clarify that any other questions got a [38:04] quick one oh i'm sorry go ahead lenny go ahead so deb so accelerated math for example [38:10] will be offered correct yep [38:17] yeah i just wanted to um i guess just reaffirm what i'm assuming is a partial [38:23] reason for this is to keep kids in the classroom to mitigate movement [38:28] and that being such an important part of what we're trying to do to get all kids back in the classroom that this [38:36] is is an opportunity for that to happen i just wanted to make sure i'm understanding that part of it correctly [38:43] yes okay yep and regardless of the learning model [38:48] that you selected you will receive the same service it might be [38:53] when you're in the virtual academy that your math block doesn't exactly line up with the [39:00] kids in the hybrids so we're gonna have to adjust and figure that out but we do are committed to making sure that kids [39:07] have personal interactions with their teacher personal interactions with their peers [39:13] and they have access to the same content and [39:19] and so that's our commitment thank you deb i don't see any other [39:26] questions but i just want to make sure oh did you owe it do you have a question [39:34] oh no okay [39:39] okay okay oh you do you have a question owen i do i've been struggling to turn my [39:45] mute off it's been very laggy um yeah but we still [39:50] committed to um uh what's that looking like now in this era of covid [39:59] so i'm tamp is still um we still have quite a few families or students that [40:05] are um engaged in that i i just got a list actually just the [40:10] other day of students that are participating in this i can't tell you for sure how the [40:16] university of minnesota is conducting courses but i know that we still have [40:22] students that are participating in that program okay good thank you [40:30] thank you i think i don't see any other questions so thank you deb for going over all of that [40:37] nice to yeah all of you okay um just we should give an update on [40:44] child care there are some changes that have occurred please know that as we're doing this [40:50] planning there are things that are changing outside of us that we have to continually adapt to so i want to give val [40:55] a chance to get an update on on child care and probably some information on [41:00] early childhood family education well there she is [41:09] [Music] you're muted now [41:14] you're still muted [41:24] [Music] sorry i was plugged in now my family has to hear me but that's okay [41:30] no problem um let's go with child care um we are excited to be [41:36] working alongside our elementary peers and we will community education will be [41:42] providing after-school care four days a week monday tuesday thursday and friday [41:50] and on wednesdays we will be in managing the entire day of what we're calling a [41:57] pause or a distance learning day for students and parents on wednesdays we'll [42:02] be able to have both our tier one families and space and capacity of staff [42:09] permitting we will also be serving families beyond tier one um our after school will [42:17] also be a combination of tier one and um students that have families that are [42:23] non-tier one we're continuing to work with josh jansen who is the point person for tier one [42:31] services on monday tuesday thursday friday and he and i and we have a meeting [42:38] tomorrow to kind of cull through um the uh [42:43] process for determining uh whether the registration uh the process to know [42:50] who's actually eligible and what schools they are at so we can make sure that our principals understand how many students [42:57] in the tier one will be at each of their elementary schools so i think between us we're using the [43:03] skills and talents we bring to the table to make sure that we are both serving our tier one and our community families [43:10] families to the best that we can um finally we are looking at bases outside [43:16] of the district if we need to we would like to see a couple weeks in to [43:22] phase in additional care for families that are non-tier one in spaces through the indiana public [43:29] schools but on sort of the back burner we're looking at spaces outside of the schools to see if that [43:35] if that does not um if we can't find additional spaces we [43:40] have a lot of families with child care needs right now and uh [43:46] doing the very best we can to stay connected to them and give them the most up-to-date information that we have [43:54] are there any questions on that [44:00] i don't see any felt okay [44:05] um i'll move on to early childhood um as we continue to talk about [44:14] after uh during the spring we offered some online delivery of both [44:21] parent ed and family ad as well as preschool online delivery uh [44:28] mixed reactions parents like it it's a little bit harder to engage families at a robust level [44:35] with their littlest learners we took some time this summer to look wait for the governor's direction and [44:43] look at our registration numbers meanwhile both leah and i have been connecting regularly with the directors [44:49] from most of the lake conference and beyond to kind of all share information and strategies [44:56] collectively we have decided at this stage we're going to begin the year in september with serving our three and [45:03] four-year-old learners um we did unfortunately have to [45:09] let our parent educators know that for this september we did not have any parent education [45:16] classes that were full or ready to be full and so we are [45:21] asking them on to stay with us as we continue to reimagine [45:26] what parent education and early childhood family education can be in the world of covid health and safety [45:34] and registration numbers really are driving um how we are [45:39] programming right now so um we are working hard to balance [45:45] a lot of different needs and spaces to be able to deliver the best quality zero to five [45:53] programming that we can so we look forward to phasing in beginning with three and four-year-olds [45:59] and during september working with a small group of staff to look at what we can start phasing in [46:05] in october when we know more feel confident about the protocols that we have in place [46:11] and can begin bringing potentially more adults into our building [46:19] questions jamie um val does that also include [46:26] a you know the ecfe early childhood family education i [46:33] want to make sure that we are keeping not only our focus on the early learners [46:38] as as children but also that family education piece so does that include potentially looking [46:45] at different ways that we can offer the family education component of ecfe [46:52] whether that be virtually small group without kids present outdoors anything like that [46:59] i just want to make sure that we're thinking of being creative to keep the focus on the importance of that [47:04] component of ecfe now thank you for asking that janie we've had conversations with several of [47:11] our teachers about outdoor babies in me of course weather dependency in the fall but if we can do [47:17] a short class babies are a funny one because they come when they are born so typically [47:23] again we get rolling numbers in early childhood family education people will join us as as the need [47:30] arises with our toddlers um the response honestly lasts spring to [47:37] online early childhood family education was tepid and so that's where we're [47:44] really leaning on our peers from other districts to share ideas and best practices [47:50] good news bad news is they're not getting any more registrations than we are the good news part of it is we're [47:57] continuing to try to figure out the landscape out there with more competitors than [48:02] ever in terms of people hiring their own parent educator to come in and do a class at home [48:08] ama which is another parent education component where families get together so [48:13] we really need to be thinking differently about our strategies on how to make sure that that remains a [48:19] cornerstone of our programming um because we certainly believe in it um [48:24] and i think our families do and so just know that that's where we want to take our couple [48:31] of weeks to pivot from launching our three and four-year-olds and then spending time with staff to sort of collectively think [48:37] about brainstorming and and reaching out to our parents in a little bit different manner [48:43] okay and also just to kind of follow up on that so what are your [48:48] plans on reaching out to families to find out what the interests [48:55] are you know i mean i my kids are older now but i know that when they were babies those classes were [49:02] critical to my survival and i think it it just shaped the way our family is and i'm [49:08] wondering how how you anticipate hearing the voice of [49:14] parents and wanting to know what they are interested you know obviously things are very different in today's day [49:20] and age with covet and um kind of surveying them to find out [49:26] what topics are of interest and maybe what age groups are the most important [49:32] for that family education piece so i'm just wondering how you're hoping to get that information [49:37] so we did spend a large amount of the summer connecting with our current registered [49:43] families and also connecting we have about a 18 to 20 person early childhood family [49:48] education council that we keep tabs with [49:53] to kind of get their take on it we are also i have staff that are [49:59] exploring some of the online immediate parent education uh social [50:05] media networks that are going on so we can get some families and some input from that why that not in person um [50:14] again we went back to all of our registered families because we did registration in february [50:20] to ask how comfortable they would feel coming into the building parent child [50:26] that was not a large comfort level because the amount of people and the unpredictability of people coming in and [50:32] out of the building was a little unsure especially when we didn't get information until late july so we're working with [50:40] our cultural liaisons also to talk to us about a different audience and where we can in [50:45] the past we've also done parent education and early childhood family education in different apartments [50:51] in other spaces outside of our building so those connections are being explored [50:59] i've got some pretty good staff that are looking at ways that we can find out what parents of today the [51:08] times the places because we've tried saturdays we've tried evenings we've done a lot of things and have [51:13] pretty good success pre-covered now we need to look at with coven [51:19] how do we continue to have that success and where is the best location or medium whether it's virtual or not um [51:27] you know from your own family experience it's so personal that the online doesn't feel like i'm [51:33] sitting in a room with people kind of burying my soul about one of my most precious assets assets [51:40] so that's a little bit more uh conversational that we need to have with [51:47] parents about how we can replicate that feeling for that okay [51:53] any other questions julie um i just have a quick when you answered [51:59] several of them in the presentation that you just gave val so thank you so much that really helps [52:04] um helps me understand where ecfe and how we came from last year to where [52:10] we are now to have this pause my only um question and thought is so um [52:19] will we be tapping some of the parent educators to help us with the planning for what [52:25] phase what the new phase looks like and do we have plans to do that i know where i know some of this is marketing some of [52:31] it is you know there's a lot of different things at play here um it's curious what your plans are to [52:37] to tap that resource that we have that knows our community so well and it already has connections with families and [52:43] relationships with our families so if you could just address that that would be excellent [52:48] yes um in our in our conversations with them and in our correspondence we have said we will bring a team of them [52:54] in to help us talk about why what about the classes that we had [53:01] available that people are not as interested in and how do we tweak those and deliver something different we're [53:07] also working with our building principles and um some early conversations with [53:12] special education to talk about the mental health side of that and how the expertise of potentially our parent [53:19] educators could be a part of that they are not mental health professionals so please don't hear that from me [53:24] but they do uh know family education and family supports very well and so i [53:31] think that we can utilize them in some ways that we have not in the past in terms of supporting our early [53:37] elementary families that's great that's good that's great creative thinking at the elementary [53:43] schools that's that's great all right thank you thanks val you're welcome [53:48] bell i have a question if i could jump in erica um my family got a lot out of ecf he and i [53:54] did too um i'm a little bit unclear here is it that the response was tepid to [54:00] online ecfe or was it tepid in general um could you qualify that please [54:08] sure thanks for asking that owen it was tepid to online it kind of what i was speaking to janie [54:14] it was it's more of a personal especially like that with some of our releases you know it's the child and the parent [54:20] together with the parent educator and the teacher and that creates a pretty full space [54:26] i just remember the dynamic was so personal and uh to do it online almost it's it's [54:32] about half the half the experience um since we have been moving toward a hybrid model [54:39] in principle could we have in-person classes or is it that the [54:44] families are not comfortable with that um i wasn't quite clear with what you said about that [54:50] yeah i don't think we have hard nose uh what we know though is we are starting with health and safety as our primary [54:56] foundation for delivery and we what we will do is like what we did with our summer programs we will not [55:02] invite adults into the building so when our older students come in as preschoolers [55:07] are going to come in without their parent with a you know staggered drop-off and teacher meeting him at the door our hope [55:14] is is that as we settle into that and we determine additional spaces in our building [55:20] because we're still partnering with early childhood special ed that we're able to think about smaller pods [55:27] um how do we bring in maybe four parents and four children at the same time with [55:33] the teacher um that kind of ideas i do not anticipate a long pause before [55:41] we have some parent education and early childhood special excuse me early childhood family [55:46] education i anticipate a month pause where we launch and then we learn and [55:53] then we're able to move on to another phase of you know engaging our families and [56:00] students okay okay so the driver is basically we're not comfortable having parents [56:05] in right now but perhaps in a month we will be open to that [56:10] or different space i mean again yes that's when we have the time because [56:16] we summer is an interesting thing we've had a a small amount of us working on multiple [56:21] phases as you guys of all people know and so we need to open up that window of [56:26] who is helping us figure out the next thing for us and um you know next spaces etc so [56:35] i'm very confident we'll we'll get there i don't have that answer of delivery [56:41] today okay great thank you val appreciate it and welcome [56:47] ellen so uh my question is less on early childhood [56:52] more on parent guardian support for distance learning and i'm [56:59] just wondering um so this is a community ed question more for you and i'm just wondering if you could um [57:06] ex explain to the board what you might have in mind uh for this it's a big need for [57:14] parents to understand their expectations and perhaps how to help their children [57:19] achieve the best that they can have with a distance learning model so i was [57:25] wondering if you could talk to us a little bit about what your plans might be that's a great question alan um [57:32] my what my our coordinator cheryl gunnis has been meeting with sean beverson and mike [57:39] walker to kind of just talk about what kind of deliveries we could do [57:45] in a virtual method to support different groups of different parent groups um [57:51] again i think i mentioned that with special services the idea of how do we use the expertise [57:58] of our parent educators to complement any social emotional learning that we may want to deliver how can they [58:04] be a part of that delivery system so that's um community ed is an [58:10] interesting entity we are we surround and complement what what the delivery systems are and [58:17] we've all been hands on deck and making sure that our schools are up and ready and we're welcoming all of our learners [58:24] from zero to grade 12. um now we get to and and all the supports are [58:29] are also being discussed but i think that will be more front and center as we begin the [58:36] school year to talk about how do we integrate all those parent supports into the into the models that we have great thank [58:44] you thank you ben anything else [58:50] i think that's it so thank you about all for all your work and explanation yeah i appreciate the time [58:57] and please don't hesitate if you have more questions thank [59:03] uh you one last theory before we get into um our scenarios i wanted to give uh mary hyman and eric hamilton um [59:12] and mary whitey just a chance for them to comment on they've been working [59:21] very hard and diligently on facilities safety protocols [59:26] and communicating that at the center of the state's expectation is that we have [59:33] protocols communicated protocols practiced and that as we bring in more and more [59:39] individuals back to the school year with our teachers coming back next week as well as our students coming in on the [59:46] 8th of september um i just wanted to give uh eric and mary and mary [59:53] a chance to just update the board of the community on [59:58] regards to um this facility so i don't know if eric you would just kick this off a little bit it might be review from [1:00:05] what you've done before but uh sure i can start um [1:00:13] yes we've continued to work um on the plans beyond what we've talked about in the past so we've um [1:00:19] we've had a complete checklist for our head engineers to review each building's mechanical systems [1:00:25] and they've gone through done the check that we requested signed off on that check and sent it back to me [1:00:33] we're working with the head engineers about cleaning protocol and we continue to work on those procedures so that the [1:00:40] elementaries are clear on what their responsibilities are as compared to the head [1:00:46] the secondary buildings because of the difference around launch distribution so [1:00:52] we're continuing to work through those procedures we have borrowed some plastic barriers [1:01:00] from the city of edina they use them for elections so we're using those as a temporary we [1:01:07] placed a pretty good size order for our barriers the state of minnesota has committed to providing us [1:01:15] masks both adult and student and shields and i just heard that [1:01:21] they're planning on having those masks available to us early next week and so i'll be working with [1:01:28] the nurses department to determine how many per building get them distributed [1:01:33] early to mid next week i don't know if there's other questions [1:01:38] around mechanical systems or cleaning or any of those procedures otherwise mary do you have a few thoughts you want [1:01:44] to share [1:01:56] [Music] [1:02:03] sometimes it's hard to get off mute so you just said something about um [1:02:09] class barriers plastic barriers um so [1:02:14] is this a short-term loan uh how many of these um i think there would be a number of [1:02:20] teachers who'd be interested in having some kind of plexiglass barrier in their classroom [1:02:26] um do we have we talked about deployment are you getting into that do we have the i imagine the demand [1:02:33] initially might be greater than the supply do we have other sources for some [1:02:38] plexiglass um can you talk about that a little bit sure [1:02:43] you obviously asked several questions there but um in short um they're really designed for [1:02:50] the um facing public um employees so if you're a receptionist [1:02:57] if you're gonna have um multiple people coming to your space it's not designed for teachers teachers [1:03:03] will have their their face shield available to them and so if your [1:03:11] receptionist main front desk at a school we'll have plexiglass there [1:03:17] we've talked about um a location like around a nurse's office [1:03:22] we've talked about a location around if the media centers are open and they're distributing books out of that [1:03:28] space at the media center where multiple people are coming up to that it's different than a kind of a a [1:03:34] teaching setting if that makes sense um and then there's [1:03:39] a lot of variants that we have to kind of work through especially that has been one variant where it's it's um a little more [1:03:46] face-to-face conversations and so we'll be working through those the good news is we placed a pretty good order well we should have [1:03:52] that at the end of the week we have the barriers that we borrowed from the city and they said they [1:03:58] we could have those until the end of october so if we see that the order that we made it [1:04:04] wasn't enough we'll have plenty of time to get more and work our way into it [1:04:09] and we'll be working with the nurse's office on recommendations on locations we won't be able to provide one for [1:04:14] every single person who asks for one but we'll be able to provide them where the nurses the nursing department [1:04:20] determines that it's most critical and we're going to get the most bang for our buck because we're trying to work off of a [1:04:26] and you'll hear this many times it's a layered system it's one thing it's not going to solve all of this it's going to be [1:04:32] multiple layers part of the reason for my questioning is we have received a lot of emails from some [1:04:40] teachers who are very concerned about their safety they are going to be in the classroom they requested virtual but they're going to [1:04:46] be given hybrid and um i'm just thinking about raising the comfort level [1:04:51] of some of those teachers and ha have you actually received requests from [1:04:57] them and is there any plan for everything is up in the air and so much [1:05:04] is being planned on short notice and and some things are experimental [1:05:10] but uh i imagine some teachers might be interested in having a plexiglass booth in their classroom um so [1:05:18] sort of an open-ended discussion here first have we received uh specific requests [1:05:25] for plexiglass in classrooms by teachers um i think i'm going to turn it over to [1:05:31] nikki who's been working with the teachers on accommodations because uh i think she can answer your question [1:05:36] about teachers okay and then before i jump we jump to nikki [1:05:42] eric do we have supply uh our because i imagine every t every school [1:05:48] district in the state is requesting plexiglass are the suppliers backlogged are the orders going to take [1:05:54] 90 days are they going to take two weeks do you know what the supply chain is [1:05:59] on plexiglas right now the location that i've ordered from it's a fairly quick [1:06:04] turnaround um i can't say what it's going to be in the future but i'm not concerned about getting it in time and they've been more [1:06:12] than receptive to providing whatever we wanted to order so i i can't say what their supply chains [1:06:18] look like go ahead so if i if i could just make a [1:06:24] comment um uh eric with working with eric there are there are a number of things that are [1:06:30] coming into play here and and um to kind of about the basic [1:06:35] format for the foundation for this is is staff training and that's around wearing a [1:06:42] face covering hand washing being comfortable with what does it mean [1:06:49] and what are we looking for when we're talking about covet symptoms and social distancing then [1:06:56] then you can jump into the um you know looking at um who would need [1:07:02] a plexiglas barrier and that's going to be related to the type of instruction and the classroom set up that they have [1:07:10] um you know if we need to stay six feet away for less than 15 minutes and so if you're [1:07:17] you know special education maybe you're working in a a classroom with students who are deaf [1:07:23] and hard of hearing multilingual learners learners there are different categories [1:07:29] of instruction that will give them a little bit of a higher priority and i know that nikki can add some [1:07:36] additional information in that but those are the sorts of things we're looking at right now [1:07:42] but the one thing that's critical and we're working on a training that'll be all staff for next week for an hour [1:07:49] will be all these on what we're calling a safe learning space and we're talking about social distancing and masking and [1:07:56] hand washing and social distancing and covet screening and exclusion and those [1:08:02] are the sorts of things that are just fundamentally we have to do this [1:08:07] and then and then we'll look at those things like the not additionally but um those are the sorts [1:08:12] of things we've been working on that play right into this [1:08:18] and nikki do you want to explain the um accommodations yes actually i can um owen's question is [1:08:24] a perfect timing because i was responding to a question just on that and i was working with both the employee and [1:08:30] the building on that plexi glass barrier and how it was going to make the employee feel more comfortable [1:08:35] so your question is timely these are just a lot of individual conversations after we made the placements um into [1:08:42] both hybrid and eva and we are working through those and yes we are making the plexiglas barriers for [1:08:50] those people who need them for accommodation purposes [1:08:55] so we we have the supply for those who would like it and those who need it we can provide it i've been working with [1:09:02] individual buildings and none of them have indicated that it will be an issue obtaining them so i don't think we have a supply issue [1:09:09] okay um ellen do you have a question yeah i [1:09:15] have actually a few questions i think this is really an important topic for me [1:09:21] in order to make sure that our staff are kept safe and our students as well so we were talking a little bit [1:09:29] just recently this is the topic of protecting vulnerable populations [1:09:34] and there's a section in the minnesota [1:09:39] state safe guidelines about that and part of that the requirements is to have [1:09:46] a plan in in place to address requests for alternative learning arrangements or [1:09:51] work reassignments and i was wondering um since we did receive many [1:09:56] letters from staff who appear to be on the um what cdc considers [1:10:03] to be high risk for severe illness due to kova 19 that did not get their distance learning [1:10:10] assignment request honored i was just wondering if you could tell me what the plan is that edina has [1:10:16] with respect to vulnerable populations so ellen i think we'll get to that when [1:10:22] we talk about the model because it's a good question and we'll get we'll uh get to that as it gets to the [1:10:28] accommodations that nicky just alluded to but i think we'll go into more detail once we talk about the model [1:10:36] okay i also have some questions about air filtration and and i was just [1:10:43] wondering this is more for eric um if there are standards for air exchanges per hour for classrooms [1:10:50] or other spaces in our buildings and um if we meet the standards with the increased [1:10:55] ventilation that was mentioned in this plan and if if they're [1:11:03] i'm just wondering what level of filtration is incorporated into our ventilation system [1:11:09] systems i'm wondering about the possibility of upgrading our filters to [1:11:14] hepa filters or supplying classrooms with hepa filters [1:11:20] um i've i think i've heard a few questions yeah the filtration so [1:11:28] hepa filtration is difficult it's it's not our buildings are not designed as uh medical facilities so our systems [1:11:36] our air handling systems are not designed to handle the increased [1:11:46] filterization of air like a hospital is so we we don't have the capability to [1:11:52] install hepa filtration in our air handling systems we install the the highest grade filter that each [1:12:00] air handling system can handle and we've done that and we've had an independent review by our [1:12:07] air filter supplier we've had him walk each site work with each head engineer [1:12:13] and review the filtration at each building and each air handler and he's he's [1:12:19] and we're confident that we've installed the most high grade filter that the air handling [1:12:24] system can handle at each location hepa filtration within [1:12:30] the classroom i had i asked ia our health and safety [1:12:36] consultant to review that and look at it they at this point are not recommending [1:12:42] individual help of filtration i don't have the verbiage in front of me but there's multiple it comes down to [1:12:50] space and every space is unique and the size of filtration that's required to filter [1:12:57] that air and their recommendation at this point is is number one i don't know that you [1:13:04] could get the hepa filtration for every single classroom and provide that i only know of one [1:13:10] district right now that has even entertained that idea as a district [1:13:15] we have focused on where the greatest impact for a hepa filtration [1:13:22] was going to be and we ordered one for every nurse's office and that will be the supplied before the [1:13:27] start of school that's where the sick are going and that's where we're going to focus the actually put [1:13:35] the right sized hepa filtration in the room i forget your first question i'm sorry [1:13:42] if there are standards for cycling air [1:13:48] so our buildings meet the minnesota code for [1:13:54] air distribution within the building we ourselves are going to bypass our energy efficiency [1:14:02] and open up the outside air damper to supply as much fresh air into the space as possible based on weather conditions obviously [1:14:09] and for certain areas i know i've had requests from the music department [1:14:16] on air changeovers per hour and i've provided those that information to the schools [1:14:22] i still am waiting on the high schools i'm hoping i'll have that by tomorrow for the air changer but that [1:14:27] was mainly on the the music area where they're they were concerned about how heavily they're [1:14:32] breathing if that makes sense yeah thank you and so just to get back to the hepa filters and [1:14:39] i know that some um ptos have mentioned that they are looking into [1:14:46] possibly supporting the schools in different ways and i was wondering if you could give me your [1:14:52] um just your thoughts on whether or not that would be a type of project that a pto or [1:15:01] edfund might that that would a room a hepa filter per room is some [1:15:07] project that might be explored [1:15:13] i personally have concerns about it like i've considered so when i purchased hepa filtration for the nurses office i [1:15:20] looked at a 10-year product a high-quality year product that's going to last a long time [1:15:26] i'm going to be able to be sized for the room not be loud so it's going to be quiet [1:15:33] so they're not cheap and i was able to get the 10 that i was required and i'll have [1:15:39] those before the start of school i think there's many many factors that have to go into [1:15:45] buying a hepa filter and then just to say you're going to put one in every classroom [1:15:51] some classrooms are massive and so you can't just do the square foot you [1:15:56] have to do the the volume of the the space within that so if you have a music room are you going to put a hepa [1:16:02] filtration in that room and is it going to work just like a standard classroom and so it's it's not an easy solution [1:16:10] and we're looking at it the district's looking at it as a multi-layer effect and say what [1:16:17] where does it make the most sense to get the most coverage with all of our time energy and dollars [1:16:23] and that's why i had our health and safety consultant look at it i heard a mechanical engineer look at it [1:16:29] and they both sides looked at it and just said that they weren't in agreement to put all of [1:16:35] our energies in that location i think our greater energy is in [1:16:41] having teaching our kids and forcing our kids to follow the protocol of washing your [1:16:47] hands covering your face and both inside the district and outside the district [1:16:52] and that's going to be the greatest impact on all of us i believe now with that said does a hippo [1:16:58] filtration work yes you know it it's proven to work if [1:17:04] it's size right if it's if it's not noisy in the classroom um it it could have an incremental [1:17:12] impact on the air um but i don't i don't believe it's the solution [1:17:18] okay thank you eric any other questions for eric matt sorry [1:17:26] go ahead oh thanks yeah no eric thanks for all you're doing and i know you've consulted many experts internal and external to [1:17:33] the school around the engineering and planning uh same way that steve's doing the same thing with technology and safety and [1:17:39] tracking in the district so i don't want to ask questions that are redundant but just one topic that keeps coming up is as we shift and [1:17:47] do planning around the buildings for classroom engagement there are some specific areas specifically high school [1:17:54] basement or others that keep coming up in emails as zones where people are less comfortable [1:17:59] being or more congregation takes place are we working in a coordinated fashion around where we're placing [1:18:06] active classrooms while you know students are in a hybrid fashion so meaning are we actually exiting out [1:18:12] certain classrooms or certain areas as part of our plan matt i think for the question i can't [1:18:18] answer that question that would be part of the high school administration um as far as areas of concern if there are [1:18:26] areas of concern that you've heard please send them to me [1:18:32] i know we've had discussions around that lower level of the high school i know i've had it reviewed by [1:18:38] both our health and safety consultant and the mechanical engineers we're providing fresh air into those spaces we do um [1:18:45] monitoring of the air um almost every year um so if there's still something that's [1:18:51] lingering out there that you're you know of i i would like to hear it and get ahead of it but as far as crossing out classrooms [1:18:57] that's an administrative thing and i haven't heard that they're they're going down that path [1:19:02] okay that's helpful thank you julie yeah actually i have a another a [1:19:09] question that's similar to what matt just asked um i know in our elementary school we have flexible seating [1:19:15] and so we don't have traditional desks for separation so what is our plan for the [1:19:22] physical space and where students will sit in the elementary schools that have [1:19:27] you know shared tables and different levels like has that been evaluated and is there a need for [1:19:33] purchase of more um seating that can be separated [1:19:40] sure um i'm sorry i i honestly cannot answer that question i worked with a couple principals [1:19:46] on a couple specific questions that they had within their space so unless you had a [1:19:53] the example that you're thinking of i honestly can't answer that question the principals in individual buildings [1:19:59] have been working with their individual classroom spaces and unless they're running into a roadblock i have not [1:20:06] participated in that portion karen chris andy tim can you [1:20:14] put any knowledge behind that or thought through that i know that's probably sure i i can talk a little bit [1:20:21] about the classroom spaces we've mocked up a classroom for our one of our first grade classrooms [1:20:28] um and on average you know looking at where we're at with uh registration for hybrid and eva [1:20:34] sections um we will be able to use uh about all of our desks [1:20:42] and then students that aren't seated at a table i'm sorry not a desk a table um [1:20:49] we're purchasing uh clipboards for all of our students so that if they're in a [1:20:54] if they're not at a desk they do have a writing surface they'll have a chair they're socially distant from each other [1:21:00] uh and they can um so those students might be seated towards the front where [1:21:05] there's some more direct instruction from the teacher and the students at the best might be doing some more independent or the tables might be doing [1:21:11] more independent work but we've got a solution that we think will work [1:21:17] despite the fact that we have some more flexible furniture with the upgrades that we did a couple [1:21:22] years ago so just to clarify what i heard so you [1:21:29] said the students will have clipboard that will sit on their lap and that will be their writing space [1:21:35] is it so so there are there are probably many given classroom 10 [1:21:42] tables that students could be seated at to accommodate students above and beyond [1:21:49] that number who will need a writing surface we purchase clipboards so that students will have their own personal clipboard [1:21:56] that they're able to write on let's say you're doing a lesson up at the front of the room [1:22:01] um there's we're trying to keep kids socially distant we don't have [1:22:08] uh the number of tables that we need but we have clipboards that they can use to write on [1:22:13] and then um they can access those other tables after they're cleaned and we move and we switch i would also [1:22:21] add that when we purchased the flexible furniture different grade levels had different [1:22:28] uh configurations or different pieces that they chose [1:22:33] in our primary classrooms many of them have more tables or different options of [1:22:40] tables where we can you know have kids sitting at either end so we're we're distancing [1:22:46] them in that way but for example at countryside and i know some of our other [1:22:51] buildings in our intermediate classrooms are three through five classrooms uh we have um individual student desks [1:22:59] they're movable they you know they raise they lower they they're on casters so they can be [1:23:04] moved around and that will allow us to to accommodate more students with [1:23:10] a a more formal writing place in addition to the clipboards and i know [1:23:16] all the elementary buildings have purchased the clipboards too so i think what we're [1:23:22] trying to do is to continue that idea of flexibility in having kids continue to have a choice [1:23:28] is it a standing desk option or table option is it a flexible seating that we've [1:23:35] chosen in the past but giving teachers some options for how can they move kids around comfortably [1:23:41] while still meeting their needs for how they are going to complete their work [1:23:50] hi this is sean and we have mocked up hi everyone we have mocked up also a [1:23:55] classroom at valley view and um we've taped it off and we've arranged our high top tables our rolling um [1:24:03] our rolling uh chairs with the little um the arm on them um and our dust and [1:24:08] tables and um we we think that at valley view there's a number of classrooms that are [1:24:14] really similar to one another so we're mocking one up and we're going to go and do [1:24:19] other classrooms around the building and then we're going to work with staff on a one-to-one basis to check in and [1:24:27] consult with them and make sure they're feeling comfortable with the arrangement but we are giving staff [1:24:32] some um exemplars that they can look at and tour around and see [1:24:40] i saw you had a question so this probably goes to the other area but as long as we're in on this topic on a typical first grade [1:24:47] class in elementary how many students do you expect to have on a given day or is it like the 10 to 12 number [1:24:56] we're actually working on that right now um at the elementary level in many of our [1:25:02] building sections uh has been decreased because of a a certain number of students [1:25:10] participating in the eva program or our virtual academy i guess i could [1:25:16] turn my camera on so you can actually see who's talking tonight right um the uh the the class lists [1:25:24] and our placements are being revised uh as we speak um for instance at [1:25:30] countryside my neighborhood classrooms uh reduced to from three sections to two [1:25:36] sections so i've compressed those class lists into two sections now it's a [1:25:41] matter of deter determining how many of those are kids that will come to us on mondays and [1:25:46] tuesdays in other words when their last name begins a through k and then how many will be in our b group [1:25:52] coming on thursdays and fridays um i will tell you that at the elementary buildings we are finding that [1:25:58] we have a whole lot more a through k students than we do m or um l [1:26:04] through z um so there is a an imbalance and we're doing our best to [1:26:10] um to work with families to maybe create a little bit more balance um some grade levels are a little bit [1:26:16] better than others but um we we know that once we get into that uh you know 15 [1:26:24] 16 range of of numbers of kids coming to us [1:26:29] i have a few problems with um with a few classrooms at each one of our buildings but for the [1:26:36] most part we're probably talking about somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 to 15 [1:26:42] kids on each of our days that's a you know that's a broad example of where we're [1:26:50] at we're going to have some some outliers there as we go through this [1:27:01] okay any other questions [1:27:06] great thank you so just to um close out we um you know these we've been working [1:27:13] really hard on understanding the safety protocols how we are implementing them you know our big [1:27:20] our commitment is to teach our staff um safety protocols for them and [1:27:26] their movement through the building as well as the safety protocols to teach them so they can teach students [1:27:33] what those safety protocols are in your packet you're going to be there's some background that was [1:27:41] written by nikki tisher to talk about the masking policy um we [1:27:46] are following the state law state the executive order of the governor of masking when you are in a [1:27:54] bullying or a mask unless a teacher says you don't have to there's an [1:27:59] example of that there are some exceptions one of them is in if i had classroom when exercising [1:28:05] so the masking policy is is something that we are expecting [1:28:11] edina students to wear teachers to wear and if individuals have a difficult time [1:28:19] with that we would place them in the united virtual academy [1:28:24] the other gold standard to that is the social distancing you heard how the rooms are being [1:28:32] reorganized reconfigured how things are being moved to the buildings signage [1:28:39] all the things that would that we would do for a group of people coming into a building [1:28:44] to remind them and to teach them what six feet is so to social distance we know social [1:28:51] distancing and masking social distancing being most important are two safety protocols that will [1:28:59] will will keep the transmission of that virus [1:29:05] absent or to at least control we also know in being an educator um [1:29:12] we it's best to teach these protocols in a face-to-face uh setting so we look forward for our [1:29:18] students returning and and teaching them these protocols and how they're going to be [1:29:23] classrooms so um so with that that's one uh very large component of putting this [1:29:30] together these are all laid out by the state and and continue with the [1:29:38] the next step which is to put together our virtual learning so i'm going to turn it over to randy and [1:29:45] the principals just to go through oh there's a question there okay [1:29:51] yeah john um just wondering about compliance with the masking [1:29:56] and so if students are not compliant they go to eva have you uh spelled out um thresholds [1:30:03] three strikes you're out um have you worked through [1:30:08] right ethics on that how could you talk to them we haven't done that yet on but i would [1:30:13] hope that we would take since we're in an educational institution that we teach [1:30:19] the importance of wearing the mask and and give the students the opportunity to learn that and uh and reminders um i even catch [1:30:26] myself in this new culvert for getting my mask on occasion so um so we really should be in a place [1:30:34] where we're teaching kids that we haven't set out any guidelines disciplinary wise for that [1:30:40] i have another question about masking itself in the physical masks and i don't know eric this is the time to ask but it's sort of [1:30:48] an extension of mary and nikki's questions or answers [1:30:54] um if we have teachers who are really uncomfortable [1:30:59] i think i heard eric say that we're gonna get some masks from the state um are these surgical masks uh could you [1:31:06] talk about the quality uh of these masks that we and we're [1:31:12] going to be supplying our teachers with the masks how's that to work out [1:31:18] yes the the supply of mass are we have the the state is allowing for a [1:31:24] few different things each staff member will get one washable mask so that'll be a cloth down we [1:31:30] haven't seen these yet but then i know that they will also be getting i think [1:31:36] i can't remember if it's two or three disposable masks and those are surgical grade [1:31:41] and then each licensed staff will also be getting one face shield so that's the [1:31:47] that's the more of a plastic sort of a a face shield that i'm sure you've seen [1:31:53] and so there that that that's what each staff member will be getting and then each student will be getting [1:32:00] um mary this is matt just to interrupt for a second sorry just i saw your hand move but this is the [1:32:05] kind of welding shield not the small three inch from the chin up just to make sure we're on the same page right this is right [1:32:10] yes the face shield um goes um between your forehead and extends below your chin and then [1:32:17] goes laterally to the side so um full full view or you know the side is protected as well [1:32:27] and an offshoot question on that mary um the teachers whose [1:32:33] faces need to be seen for enunciation and language training um are they going [1:32:40] to be given a waiver on not wearing the physical mask as long as they're wearing the shield um what's because i understand if you're [1:32:47] gonna wear the shield you still need to wear the mask uh is there a special exception here [1:32:52] could you talk to that well um i think some of the some of the [1:32:58] types of instruction are still being looked at for example um like the speech language providers i [1:33:04] think that they're going to be looked at and nikki can probably speak in jeff jorgensen [1:33:09] possibly but they're going to be delivering those services i know that virtually as well [1:33:15] but um you know we're we're still i think some of those are going to be on a case-by-case basis but we [1:33:21] you know they will have the ppe that's necessary and then you know like a face shield and then [1:33:28] also plex glass so because some of the the the um the younger students for the early [1:33:34] learning center for example the early childhood students there they will very unlikely that they'll be able to [1:33:40] wear a mask as well they're just too young for that so if that if the instructor has [1:33:47] the teacher has the plexiglas and we you know once again we're going [1:33:53] back to the appropriate ventilation in the room the social distance [1:33:58] the hand washing and then we have to remember that you know we're really asking families to do an assessment of [1:34:05] their their the children coming in that they're free of all the any copic symptoms you know so maybe we [1:34:11] can postpone um you know the lesson or whatever it is [1:34:17] the face-to-face time until 14 days when or whatever the exclusion criteria says 10 or 14 days depending on [1:34:24] what it is so we're going to be having to look at all of those things so it just shows you how complicated it [1:34:30] gets oh and this is nikki um yes the new policy the appendacy to the policy [1:34:37] um addresses some of those situations um i can't read it verbatim because i'm i'm on the call but it's [1:34:43] it's one of it lists the ex the the reasons that somebody would wear a face shield instead of a mask and it's [1:34:49] i want to call it educational impossibility and so it goes to some of the situations that jeff is in where the kids are teaching or the [1:34:56] teachers are teaching enunciation but he's looking at other protocols that will help [1:35:01] the teachers perform in those those venues [1:35:07] and so these masks and shields they'll all be available first day of class [1:35:14] um yeah so i just got a note from the state of minnesota saying that they're going to start distribution on monday [1:35:20] um i'm the point of contact for the district and as soon as they hear anything we're going to pick them up i've already [1:35:26] communicated with the nurses department we'll have numbers to break them down and get them distributed as soon as that [1:35:32] day that i pick them up so yes is the short answer okay [1:35:37] thank you julie yeah just a follow-up question so i underst i [1:35:42] mean i i understand that that's what the state is providing one cloth mask and then a couple disposable for every teacher but [1:35:50] realistically that that gets the teacher through two weeks of school i mean are we as a [1:35:56] district have we put any money aside or we looked at supplying our teachers with [1:36:02] a stockpile at all the sites so that there is no question that if either a student comes to school without one [1:36:08] or a teacher needs one or if someone gets sneezed on or all those different things that we [1:36:14] have that back up support is that part of our plan yes um we've actually we've been [1:36:21] actually we have um i know eric has actually purchased some but we've also [1:36:26] um had some um very generous donations from um for example the edinburgh chamber of [1:36:32] commerce had um um you know they they gave us some as they gave other businesses in in edina [1:36:38] and i think we've um i think we've um we've picked up that almost i think 5 000 [1:36:45] from them so um these are these are donations that um i think we're still waiting for a box [1:36:51] i went and picked up some so and we've had some from other community organizations within edina [1:36:57] um and then the donations actually started last march and so they've been using [1:37:05] them in the child care and the success programs so you know we're just really encouraging employees as well [1:37:11] you know they can go above and beyond and maybe they prefer because there are a number of [1:37:16] styles of masks you know there some of them are more comfortable than others more some of them are breathable [1:37:22] but we we've let them know that we can provide a minimum a number um i know that doesn't relieve [1:37:29] all of the anxiety around this by any means but but um you know um i do feel confident [1:37:36] that we'll continue to build more of our own supply thank you thanks for clarifying that and [1:37:43] and one other comment is that um we are planning on supplying the nurses [1:37:49] office with um extra ones if they seem deemed necessary so they are disposable they don't last [1:37:56] long but they will have extras on hand if there's an issue and as mary said every mask is unique [1:38:03] and so for i have no idea what the city the state's going to provide they might provide wonderful ones [1:38:09] they might provide something that nobody likes i don't know i know i've tried on multiple kinds and i've found a couple [1:38:14] that work and so it's difficult to say we're going to purchase a mask for [1:38:20] everybody and then everybody's going to wear that mask when it's so individual it's very challenging yeah no thank you [1:38:26] thanks for clarifying that i think that stockpile is an important clarification for our teachers [1:38:32] and staff um i had one other question that i i didn't realize was on this part but it's in here we have the [1:38:40] parents and guardians in schools um so if the schools are closed to visitors and volunteers [1:38:46] can somebody um respond in what does that mean is that include [1:38:51] all pto does that include um every everyone who's not a district [1:38:58] employee i just i'm curious i had that that marked as something i just wanted some clarification on is [1:39:04] um and is this something that we're starting at the beginning of the school year with this but the hope is to then move [1:39:12] into then allowing some of our essential volunteers and i think essential people who are coming [1:39:17] in to work with students reading or stock the library or all those different things um so so julie i think um [1:39:26] uh i i'll find the language but i believe um volunteer access to schools is [1:39:32] restricted is what the state has said okay so that would include then [1:39:38] all of our ptos okay thank you ellen [1:39:46] yeah actually i have um three questions um uh especially before we move on to [1:39:52] distance learning so these are all these these um pretty much wrap up my questions [1:39:57] about the hybrid model one it has to do with bus transportation [1:40:03] and i know the academy of pediatric pediatricians has recommended [1:40:10] plus plexiglas for bus drivers and i was wondering if you could speak a [1:40:16] little bit to the safety of our bus drivers and then i have two more other questions [1:40:22] um i did we did have that question uh the state patrol does not allow that uh used [1:40:31] for the drivers so they will they will need to be masked and then we are working on social [1:40:37] distancing seating on the bus and um [1:40:43] ellen the students will be expected to be masked as well [1:40:50] i think that this is it's one of those the areas that um is equally important um [1:40:56] and we haven't talked about it very much but um it would ideally if we could um this is [1:41:02] going to be a segue into my my next comment about cohorts um [1:41:07] in um the state of minnesota stay safe plan one of the requirements [1:41:14] is uh to ensure um that we have uh [1:41:22] social insurer social distancing um honored on our buses and so uh for [1:41:29] transportation um all of for all of that i think that that's what i'm hearing you're planning [1:41:35] um and that's you're not in your head so so that makes me happy because i think that [1:41:41] that's that's important on the okay so i'll just go into my my comment about [1:41:46] uh cohorts uh one of the recommendations um from the state is that we develop and [1:41:53] keep students and staff in small cohort groups that stay together as much as possible throughout [1:41:59] the day and from day to day limit mixing between cohort groups as much as much as [1:42:05] possible and um so i just i'd like to hear [1:42:10] how the district is doing this both in the primary and then also in the secondary [1:42:20] i can speak to the elementary our classroom groupings of students are considered one cohort [1:42:28] we know that in one particular classroom that teacher is the crossover person [1:42:35] that teacher will be seeing both the a part of their class list and they will [1:42:41] also be spending time with the b part of their list so in that week's time [1:42:46] those students and their teacher are the primary people who will be in their cohort or in their their little bubble [1:42:54] um if we have additional staff members who will have access to those groups we are [1:43:01] limiting the number of groups of students our specialist teachers have access to for instance we [1:43:08] have built our specialist schedule to make sure that our [1:43:14] music teacher only has access to four classrooms of kids or five classrooms of [1:43:19] kids over a time instead of them seeing every student in the building in a in a [1:43:27] one week period of time so we've we've created schedules to accommodate that [1:43:32] uh we've also made arrangements at the elementary for our specialist teachers and anyone else who would come [1:43:38] in contact with that particular group to [Music] [1:43:44] be coming to their classroom so that we're not sending kids to [1:43:49] multiple locations in the building that once they're in their room they're there any services any additional staff [1:43:56] members who are there to support them you know might be a paraprofessional or whoever that might be [1:44:02] they're going to come to the kid as opposed to the kids being out and about in multiple [1:44:08] locations that also goes for scheduling them for [1:44:14] lunch they'll be eating in their classrooms at the elementary level and then their group or their cohort [1:44:20] will stay together during uh recess times and they'll also be assigned a location [1:44:27] on the playground so that their cohort has a place to be and be together as well as providing consistent [1:44:35] supervision for them so that same para who has been in their classroom [1:44:40] might also be that same para that will be supervising that particular cohort of students [1:44:45] as they're out and about in the building very limited of course um but als when they're on the [1:44:52] playground or in any um any other you know grouping when they're outside [1:44:58] of their classroom we're going to make sure that there is a consistent uh adult group that has access to [1:45:05] or exposure to that particular cohort of students [1:45:11] thank you and that that extends to the interventions as well right that's [1:45:19] correct um we're also working on what the scheduling will look like for that it will it will very likely um be based [1:45:27] on grade level or classroom groupings of students as far as the scheduling goes again [1:45:33] limiting the number of groups of students each particular adult has access to [1:45:40] so it might be that we assign our our reading specialists to just first [1:45:45] grade and second grade and then a different reading specialist to third grade and fourth grade so again limiting the number of time [1:45:53] number of adults were having in contact with particular cohorts of students [1:45:58] okay great thank you you're welcome and then um how are we handling that for these [1:46:05] cohort groups in the secondary [1:46:13] well i could say certainly at the high school to have a comprehensive high school you have to look at the students registered for over 38 000 [1:46:20] requests through registration and all the variety of courses that we do offer so cohorting is much more [1:46:27] difficult because you don't have a single teacher that teaches multiple subject areas [1:46:33] you know you don't have a teacher that's licensed in chemistry that could also teach the english curriculum and the [1:46:39] math curriculum so there will be movements of kids in the building so our focus is really more on those numbers and we're looking [1:46:46] at sections based on the alpha split and room capacity sections that could be [1:46:52] right now i'm looking at some sections that are as low as you know seven or eight students to some sections really [1:46:57] is a maximum of like 18 students uh in a classroom i think the only ones that would be [1:47:02] larger than that would be like our largest section in the entire building is our is our concert band [1:47:08] but they're also in a much larger space cohort in half perhaps split with another sectional [1:47:14] teacher to make that smaller and we should be able to manage all that with our six feet of distancing so [1:47:19] that's really our our focus at the high school to still be able to run the courses in a comprehensive high school [1:47:25] in a safe way so the ability to cohort is much more complex um than it would be at an elementary [1:47:32] school um hi ellen this is shawn and the same would be true in middle school [1:47:38] when we have the kids with a number of choices um their cohort is really their um their [1:47:44] a through k group and their l through z group and they go through and they um with their choices and were afforded [1:47:50] so many opportunities for kids that would be their their their cohort um [1:47:56] just another i want to just reiterate what um karen bergman said we are super heavy at [1:48:01] valley view and our a through k's so um we just could we use a few more l [1:48:07] z's is that something that the district [1:48:13] would be looking at changing at this point if it makes sense to i mean i i i'm just wondering this i i [1:48:20] don't know how we landed with a through k it works for all the buildings there's just a couple of [1:48:25] buildings it doesn't work so great for so i think that um we're seeing movement still with students going into eba [1:48:32] and i think that as we look at that movement um i'm hopeful that we can balance some of the things we still have some kids at [1:48:38] valley view that we don't have their decision on so i think there still will be some movement on that and [1:48:44] we'll make the decision at that point you know what we can do maybe ask for volunteers right sean i i i recognize that's the [1:48:50] type of decision that you guys would be great at but i wasn't sure if you were hinting at the board that you would want us to no we'll we'll [1:48:58] manage that one we'll make it work but we do have parents we do have parents asking to move cohorts [1:49:03] and that's a really really hard decision we're pausing on that right now um and we realize that parents are [1:49:09] making pods in their neighborhoods and things like that and there's some um constraints with that and right now we at valley view we [1:49:15] just can't honor those we are just holding on that until we have um better information how many kids are [1:49:22] going to actually move to eda right so so from what i'm here i'm my i [1:49:28] i i am um my concern is on this [1:49:34] on the number of uh teachers and students being exposed to different [1:49:42] students you know it has this multiplier effect in the way that our district [1:49:51] and all districts are handle secondary classes so um i was kind i was very interested when [1:49:57] the recommendations came out about these cohorts and i was hearing about different um [1:50:05] different districts exploring different ways of making that happen possibly on a not it i know that it would limit [1:50:14] total class choice for some students or whatever but it does [1:50:19] definitely limit the exposure of the virus to our staff and our students and so [1:50:28] um i'm just wondering uh if it's [1:50:34] if the district has has looked at the possibility of trying to create [1:50:40] cohorts for secondary in order to limit the exposure [1:50:47] to the teachers and i'm just i'm just curious about that you'd substantially be undoing what we [1:50:54] know about the opportunities in edina so you could do anything you just it's always a trade-off if you [1:51:01] want to create cohorts that the secondary like the elementary has then you're you're exponentially cutting down the choices [1:51:07] kids have and you're starting to say well maybe we'll just have core classes well then what do you do with the rest [1:51:12] of your staff for example and so uh that's that really isn't a choice in my view you'd be [1:51:18] saying well we just the only option is to go distance learning in that case and what we heard so often in the spring [1:51:24] from families in our focus groups was it's important for us to have our kids back to school [1:51:30] and we're willing to give up some rigor or we're willing to give up some breath because it's so important to have [1:51:37] social emotional connection it's so important to have that ability to interact with teachers it's so important to [1:51:43] to have some of the stuff that really makes education in edina great [1:51:49] and um so you'd be undoing the things that we've come accustomed to [1:51:54] when you dine at the secondary level and okay well thank you i i actually i'm [1:52:01] i've i've seen i've been looking at different models where the teachers [1:52:06] actually come to that cohort and and it is the impact on their schedule on the students [1:52:13] options for specials etc is minimized but i i am just pushing back [1:52:20] on on um exposing the teachers to as many students as we are currently [1:52:27] doing with this model and so i i'm i was trying to come up with my own idea um from [1:52:33] uh what i'm hearing but what i'm hearing is that the or secondary are literally [1:52:40] half of the student body at our middle schools or a quarter of all of um [1:52:46] those students at a grade level so at the high school you could make it [1:52:52] smaller you could have divide into 25 instead of half so your cohort is [1:52:59] then even smaller but then your kids come to school less often so this is that's another trade-off you [1:53:05] could take ap and general classes and combine those together it's one class and so then you could [1:53:12] potentially have kids team and stay together but it's an ap and a general [1:53:17] class together but that puts pressure on both the kids in terms of what they want in the course [1:53:22] and maybe a teacher that has never taught one course or the other so this is again all these trade-offs [1:53:28] that that tim is talking about um are real and again trying to have a [1:53:33] comprehensive high school and have that experience um is what we're trying to do in a safe way and so that's what we have with the [1:53:39] with the cohort model of splitting our school in half okay great thank you thank you on my [1:53:45] last my last point is and i was going to follow up on um on owen uh owen's question about [1:53:53] what happens when there's non-compliance you know where we are we are going to try to be keeping [1:54:00] students uh socially distanced and wearing their masks but my [1:54:08] i'm gonna i'm i'm for the safety of all students i am very concerned that we [1:54:13] have a process and plan set out for how we're going to manage [1:54:18] non-compliance and um and i think that [1:54:24] um we should be prepared for the fact that there probably won't be total compliance [1:54:30] and i i think that we should we should talk about it as a district what the plan will be um and so [1:54:38] i i actually am very uncomfortable um on behalf of the the for parents and [1:54:45] students and and our staff not to have a plan [1:54:51] well i mean i can i can address that question i think it's very much what what john said at the beginning is like [1:54:56] everything we do in education is developmental and part of teaching because you could have a kid that doesn't have a mask [1:55:03] because they you know dropped it in the toilet and then we would help that kid get another mask for the rest of their [1:55:08] day but you if you have a student in your building and i'll say for the high school that is old enough to understand what [1:55:15] the expectations are that is completely non-compliant there would be a warning [1:55:20] communication with the parent and that day we would hand them a mask but if it continued we'd say we have a distance learning option [1:55:26] for you that's what would happen at the high school level so but these are individual cases and also you could look at who the [1:55:32] student is you could look at the age of the student and all those things come into play about making a decision so a [1:55:38] sort of a blanket rule sort of three strikes and you're out is not the way that we kind of handle discipline we [1:55:44] want to make sure that we we handle it in a respectful way with kids but ultimately we're not going to let any students make [1:55:50] any of us unsafe and kind of wreck all the work uh that we're working towards so that's [1:55:56] that i wanted to hear that definitively and and andy you um you've said it well [1:56:03] so thank you um yeah erica you said me next but i'd rather have sean go ahead [1:56:08] yeah i would hi thank you i would just like to say that we had a really good [1:56:14] example yesterday at a valley v picture day of how well kids can do we had zero problems with students [1:56:21] wearing a mask zero problems with students social distancing they were super compliant they were adorable the [1:56:28] kids did great we had 800 kids come through and get pictures it's our biggest picture day ever [1:56:35] including when we had 1400 kids in our building with ninth grade we never had 800 kids come through so it [1:56:42] was great to see them and the kids did great thank you no thank you sean i i [1:56:47] i just wanted to make sure that it wasn't just going to be all squishy so thank you um that's all right [1:56:54] yeah i was going to affirm the same thing what i heard owen asked was is there a disciplinary policy in place for this and the answer was no we're going [1:57:00] to let sight administer and teachers handle it appropriately and there's just such a high level of [1:57:06] anxiety and emotions at this point in time across the board i totally understand that but this is definitely something that should be handled not at [1:57:12] a board level but in the classroom and at the administration level so i think what i just heard was great and i'm sure that [1:57:17] the elementary schools also have a good plan in place that you're not gonna handcuff nine-year-olds but you're gonna make sure they put [1:57:23] their masks on when they have them and they're well-dressed [1:57:30] great i think next step now is to update you on [1:57:36] our planning as it relates to our model of eda as well as hybrid [1:57:44] models have not changed they probably have become more nuanced and also we have begun [1:57:50] the staffing process so i'm going to turn it over to randy uh first to talk a little bit about uh [1:57:56] what work has gone on since august since the last match and um and then we can talk a little bit [1:58:02] about the staffing process as it relates to the information that nikki and principals have been working on so [1:58:10] dr schmazel are you out there somewhere i am thank you chair ellenberg superintendent [1:58:15] schultz our board members our staff and community members that are listening this evening [1:58:22] first of all before i begin i do want to publicly recognize our principals and our administrators at [1:58:28] each of our sites they have been putting in huge amounts of [1:58:34] hours and problem solving and we are blessed to have such a talented [1:58:39] team working in the district they are amazing and they they just they carry that [1:58:45] positivity with them every day despite so so many of the challenges that they have as they're trying to work through [1:58:51] this i also want to publicly recognize many of our teacher leaders who have been [1:58:56] back early helping work with teams trying to figure out and solve some of these puzzles and some of our district staff [1:59:02] have also been working on that all of you know how complex this is it's hard to even describe the levels of [1:59:09] complexity and the tiers of complexity that go along with it but we just try and peel it apart day by day [1:59:15] and work on it piece by piece right now [1:59:20] for our edina virtual learning we have about 1937 students [1:59:27] signed up to participate in that that's about 23 percent of our student population [1:59:33] so about 6 000 of our students are currently aligned to hybrid [1:59:38] we have about five percent of our families that we have not had a response back yet from [1:59:45] but we do have a number of buildings who have been able to contact all of their families and they have [1:59:50] responses from all of their families or at least they have been in contact [1:59:55] with all of their families i know some of the families are still connecting back to them we do have [2:00:00] teachers back next week we're excited about uh being able to see many of our teachers i [2:00:06] know that's um you know where it's it's still a challenging time for them [2:00:12] we have 45 new teachers that started some training this week principals will be kicking off [2:00:19] their welcome back to our teachers at their sites on monday and our district workshop day is planned [2:00:24] for all staff on wednesday august 26th we have numerous trainings [2:00:30] planned that will be available for staff both before school starts and once school begins [2:00:36] and as mary mentioned mary hyman mentioned all staff will complete a protocols and safety training [2:00:43] and we want to make sure that all staff have just they've been prepared they they understand what those safety [2:00:48] protocols are and that we have those in place teachers who will be teaching virtually [2:00:54] only will have time to connect next week and will also receive training and we are still finalizing [2:01:01] what that training looks like and still working on some of that our teachers will also [2:01:06] who are teaching remotely will also have time to meet across the district and we'll have time to prepare their curriculum for the fall [2:01:14] nikki's going to talk a little bit i think about the staffing process and we're still working through finalizing [2:01:20] those staff assignments in some cases we're realigning work of our paras and in some cases we need to [2:01:25] hire some additional support staff so we are tracking on where all those positions are and what's been [2:01:32] filled and what isn't um at all levels we're working to expand [2:01:38] face-to-face time for students receiving additional services to include special education and multilingual [2:01:45] services in particular at the elementary level once we understand [2:01:50] how many students will be participating in the tier one child care support service at schools that'll help [2:01:58] us finalize the amount of space we have for additional face-to-face time for some other populations of students [2:02:04] in terms of the virtual academy at the elementary level we were able to schedule [2:02:10] separate sections we had enough numbers to schedule separate sections we have about five second sections at each grade level for [2:02:17] our learners so they will have a specific eva teacher assigned to them there'll be approximately 30 eva [2:02:24] teachers at elementary that will be working really as a team across the district to support that [2:02:30] learning pathway for families and we will support those teachers with resources and training [2:02:36] and some time to team across the elementaries and with teachers at their home schools [2:02:41] on wednesdays as part of that wednesday collaboration day and training day [2:02:46] in some cases students will be combined with students from some of the other schools because the sections were a bit [2:02:53] smaller than a typical class so we had to combine some of those sections to make them work but we could reframe that [2:03:01] and say a positive that is that they do get to get a jump start on building some of the friendships that would typically not [2:03:06] form until they head to middle school so they get to know some other students across the district [2:03:12] eva classes will include a blend of live teaching and flipped lessons teachers will be connecting with students live multiple [2:03:18] times per week to teach through virtually through direct instruction [2:03:24] small group discussions one-on-one conferences project instructions q a with students [2:03:30] we'll be working with the teachers on how they can schedule that and what that [2:03:36] looks like eva at the secondary will look a little different than it does at the elementary [2:03:42] when we looked at where students fell in the registration process [2:03:48] we might see that there's two students from this course and three students from this course and [2:03:53] eight students from this course and i think at the end of the day what made the most sense is that students really [2:03:59] do remain within their scheduled courses and will be learning virtually with their hybrid peers [2:04:05] live teaching or synchronous time will be expected for both virtual and hybrid students several times per week and we really [2:04:12] believe this is the best solution that ensures flexibility adaptability for what might lie ahead [2:04:18] as and and at the same time honoring the course selections of students as andy [2:04:23] mentioned and staying aligned to the virtual and hybrid family choice options [2:04:28] that they put forth so week one we'll start tuesday september 8th the day after labor day [2:04:34] we'll have orientation at each level that orientation will support both the hybrid and the virtual learning [2:04:41] preparation for the hybrid we will have reduced numbers of students in the buildings [2:04:47] during that orientation week and this will provide us some ramp up time for the models [2:04:53] during this fall during that orientation week we might have you know we'll have students meeting teachers we'll be really kicking off the [2:05:00] fall with building relationships which is at the heart of any good educational [2:05:05] environment we might have some conferences with some families in some cases in particular at [2:05:11] the elementary level at elementary level in particular assessing the learners and where they're at on their learning continuum around [2:05:18] reading and math we may have some technology to distribute training for students [2:05:23] and for families on the models additional communication etc we have chromebooks and ipads and [2:05:30] textbooks and workbooks and instruments and novels and lots of materials to get to students who will either be learning [2:05:36] virtually or will be learning virtually part-time as they're in the hybrid [2:05:42] week two monday september 14th we launched then the regular hybrid and the dyna virtual academy [2:05:48] in more of its true form and the one difference is that we're still kind of slow phasing on [2:05:55] kindergarten so kindergarten will start the four days a week in week three which starts monday [2:06:00] september 21st and we'll launch that four days per week for kindergarten [2:06:05] and we are drafting up some daily schedules that we'll post on the academic tab of the family dashboard and [2:06:12] those will be available for families next week and we'll continue to add more specific details on schedules [2:06:18] the additional communications will come from the district the families and from our principals to families and [2:06:24] once the teachers get back and their and they get their class list they will also be reaching out [2:06:30] to students that are on those class lists so i'm going to pause there and ask jody [2:06:36] if if there's any other details or anything else that you want to add in terms of the thinking [2:06:43] around eva or hybrid [2:06:48] thank you randy and uh thank you superintendent schultz and chair ellenberg board members and community members i [2:06:55] think um randy did such a good job of synthesizing all the information uh but i would i'm just going to add a [2:07:01] little bit about the instructional model um we've been working hard with teams of uh [2:07:06] teachers and one thing that we are really trying we really are doing is committing to best practices and instruction [2:07:14] so teams are looking at being really tight on what we're teaching and looking at standards and pacing and [2:07:20] then designing lessons that are coherent across the schedule so if you're in hybrid or in distance [2:07:26] learning the learning will build upon each other from day to day and another main two more main goals is [2:07:32] that we're engaging kids in activities that provide purpose and connection so going back to [2:07:37] randy's comment on building relationships and the need for kids to be deeply engaged in the learning [2:07:44] and then we're also really committed within the model that we're providing support and the app and that will look different [2:07:51] at the different levels and possibly sometimes at different buildings depending on where the students and the teachers are at [2:07:57] and that support and feedback will come in various forms of flipped lessons or synchronous learning [2:08:03] um sometimes it'll come just in the comments and threads and emails with [2:08:09] students so just wanted to add those four components that we're working hard to [2:08:14] keep as a consistent across the entire [2:08:19] [Music] system okay um [2:08:26] thank you and talking about staffing and how we are in the middle of that process and [2:08:32] nikki's uh doing a great job with that so can you talk about that of course and actually we're on step [2:08:38] eight of a nine step process so i was looking back in some of the framework that we originally created for [2:08:45] this process and step six was soliciting teacher preference and so we received those last [2:08:51] monday and then on wednesday of course we received parental um input onto what model that they would [2:08:58] like their student to engage in and so now we're on step eight so step seven was [2:09:03] the one that happened yesterday which was the notification two teachers of their placement either [2:09:10] in the hybrid format or in the eva format and so from that conversation then [2:09:17] invokes additional conversations regarding what accommodations may be needed [2:09:22] to make that that placement fit for the employer or the employee and so that's where [2:09:28] we're at right now is really starting to engage with the individual employees and i can say so far i've had quite a [2:09:35] few quite a number of successful conversations around plexiglas and masking and cleaning and those types [2:09:42] of things to make our employees feel comfortable in the classroom we have additional ones to do [2:09:47] still um and those are some of the ones that i know that are coming to the board also um we're definitely reaching out to our [2:09:53] employees just as fast as we can to engage in that process with them to you know figure out can [2:09:59] can that placement work or do we need to you know what other things can we do to make it work um we had about um 275 [2:10:07] teachers who said that their preference was virtual um but that you know what was [2:10:12] interesting in the process is we did have people um come and uh our teachers [2:10:18] select virtual but then go to hybrid and then go back to virtual so if there was a lot of conversations and that's why [2:10:23] our principal goals were key in these conversations and the placements is they they know um their employees [2:10:30] well and we will continue to work on um you know we have a few additional [2:10:37] um conversations that need to happen but like i said we're just on step eight right now and we look forward to engaging in those [2:10:43] conversations with our employees nikki this applies this process applies [2:10:51] not just to the teaching staff it applies to all employees that is correct right now we've been [2:10:56] primarily focused on the um the instructional staff because we want to make sure we get those in place first [2:11:02] but the we actually have on our faqs right now questions for our employees that also [2:11:07] lead to the reasonable accommodation process and there's a form to begin that process and [2:11:13] all of our employee groups we've notified at this point about the existence of the faqs so all of our representatives [2:11:19] know how do employees engage in this process with human resources but yes we we do have some paraeducator [2:11:26] and we actually just sent a uh employee announcement out last night regarding [2:11:31] expectations of our office support staff and our para educators and [2:11:38] other employees our custodians our bus drivers during this hybrid model [2:11:47] yeah so hi nikki um coming into this role i'm sure you weren't expecting the show to have this dynamic [2:11:54] at the start so thanks so much for all your handling and the energy you're bringing um it would be [2:11:59] inappropriate for me to dive in any specific instances of course that we receive emails from at the board level from [2:12:04] teachers or otherwise but i'm glad to hear there is that feedback loop in place from the perspective of the district in [2:12:12] managing the hr piece both from a safety and compliance piece and also the liability piece [2:12:17] we know every year the public doesn't see it but we settle multiple grievances or unhappy situations with [2:12:23] employees the way that any company or public institution would so is there um so in terms of this step [2:12:29] eight is there is there a series of a review kind of so you know you started you said with the [2:12:34] full teaching staff you had 270 or 200 and some odd teachers who wanted to do eva [2:12:40] what are we going to generally kind of boil it down to is it going to be a similar ratio to students of [2:12:46] 20 eva or is it going to be a little bit higher because of the magnitude of the offering has to be [2:12:52] delivered in both settings just how does how does that kind of match up at a macro level just so people understand that [2:13:00] thank you for the question um so really when all those place tho all those initial [2:13:06] placements have been made and so right now we do have teachers in positions to serve students [2:13:11] some of some of those uh some of the ways that we're serving students look may look a little different depending on the person [2:13:17] um serving the students so i think those the fundamental building blocks have been set and so now [2:13:23] it's refining um refining from that point and and really like i said winnowing down [2:13:31] where where we need to um create flexibility where a placement may [2:13:36] may um where placement may need to be refined if that makes sense matt does [2:13:42] that answer your question or am i not getting quite to it uh that was helpful the what i was [2:13:48] looking for a little bit maybe this is a randy uh or other question um but jody is is that think about [2:13:56] just there's been a lot of questions in general from parents about thinking about okay let's get right to it at the board [2:14:03] level the conversation we had two two and a half weeks ago was all about safety in the classroom [2:14:09] got a bunch of emails and feedback do people care about eva or is that an afterthought then we [2:14:14] focused on eva last week then i got a bunch of questions about hey do you guys care about hybrid or is all about distance learning so [2:14:22] next questions we got were how do you determine classroom size is it by a number of students at a ratio or is it [2:14:27] by square footage is it do you bring out hula hoops what so the conversation continues to migrate [2:14:33] based on the incredible um number of conflicting situations that you want to [2:14:40] try to find the best outcome for so all i was asking was from a numerical basis as you're sorting [2:14:45] out number of teachers applied to eva number of teachers applied to [2:14:50] hybrid scenario is that also being done at a ratio or just how is that being handled at a macro level this is a [2:14:57] governance and operational question not a tactical question about counting a through k versus a through l just how are you [2:15:04] thinking about how to address that and how does that sit [2:15:09] so i'll just add madness randy i'll just add that we're using the classroom guidelines [2:15:16] as our guidelines for how we staff all of our sections now in the case of eva to get them to [2:15:22] balance they might be a little bit less they might be a little bit higher but generally we're using those [2:15:29] guidelines to balance that out as best as we can and it's [2:15:34] again it's a puzzle piece with how many kids do we have how many teachers do we have how many sections do we have and [2:15:39] where do we have flexibility and where do we not at the school level we have looked at our you know we studied [2:15:47] our classrooms we studied how much space we need for students to be [2:15:52] safely socially distanced in those classrooms and what that would mean for the [2:15:57] capacity of those classrooms and that's what the hybrid really leverages is you're only bringing in [2:16:03] typically half of the kids so you're able to fit them into those [2:16:10] spaces and keep them socially distanced now at the elementary level if you went [2:16:15] into some of the kindergarten classrooms they're massive they're really big rooms [2:16:22] and so the capacity is actually the the actual physical capacity is much [2:16:28] bigger than the enrollment but we are still utilizing our guidelines we're making sure we look at [2:16:34] all of our spaces and what they have for a safe capacity limit and then we are [2:16:40] organizing our staffing around those safe capacity limits when we're working on the hybrid model [2:16:47] if that makes sense it does that's how okay so [2:16:55] so before we get too far on into this conversation i wanted to let the rest of the board [2:17:01] and community and administration know that the governance committee has been meeting to talk about school [2:17:07] year planning especially related to some feedback we've received from different stakeholders in the community [2:17:14] from staff from parents administrators and our teachers [2:17:19] we have had a lot of wide-ranging discussions regarding options changes and [2:17:25] opportunities that we have regarding the staffing and the model that is present presented towards us [2:17:34] um and based on these conversations and the feedback received janie lenny and i um today are suggesting some um [2:17:41] additions to the hybrid model being proposed tonight um we have four things [2:17:48] that we are suggesting to make the hybrid model work better for both the community and [2:17:53] the teaching staff and those first is that we want a [2:18:00] commitment from the district to send out communications to parents to better explain [2:18:05] how the hybrid model will work and so they understand the commitments we need from them and their students to make the environment [2:18:12] as safe as possible for our teachers and for other students and staff um including but not limited to our [2:18:18] masking policy appendix social distancing and things the expectations we have as far as hand [2:18:25] washing and behavior we feel that we really need a commitment from our community [2:18:30] that this program and our expectations are going to work um for our staff and for the other [2:18:36] students additionally we would like the district to send communications to [2:18:42] the city and city-based sports and activity associations [2:18:47] explaining that we need a commitment to follow recommended cdc safety rules such as masking and social distancing [2:18:54] when our students are outside of the classroom we know the virus does not stop [2:18:59] at the door of our schools so we need the community to help us keep the virus out of schools and [2:19:06] that's one tangible thing that i think that we can do as a community [2:19:12] the third thing we're suggesting is that the district look into a measured rollout about we're suggesting that we give [2:19:20] teachers and administrators an additional week to work on their safety protocols [2:19:25] the option to ramp up grades and students gradually doing this we have the expectation that [2:19:31] our hybrid program will be fully operational by the week of september 21st this can give us as a district the [2:19:38] opportunity to relieve pressure on the system and ensure protocols are working before all students come in at the same time [2:19:46] the fourth thing that we're looking for is that we broaden the definition of [2:19:52] what situations qualify for an accommodation for teachers and that we revisit certain teacher [2:19:58] requests for accommodation based on the feedback we've received from many teachers [2:20:03] we believe a broader definition is appropriate to accommodate teacher preferences at the secondary level we're asking [2:20:10] administrators to offer teachers the option of teaching remotely while their students are in school with a [2:20:16] paraprofessional or potentially shifting to a virtual learning class [2:20:21] and at the elementary level we're asking that teachers be given special assignments if necessary [2:20:26] and we allocate budgetary dollars for additional teachers to come into the classroom if needed we fully support the [2:20:33] administration with their commitment of doing the hybrid model and especially commitments they've already made [2:20:39] such as moving school a week also the fact that our administration [2:20:44] is now giving each kindergarten teacher a dedicated paraprofessional giving each elementary grade a dedicated [2:20:52] paraprofessional and we would like to see if we have the ability to use paraprofessionals in some [2:20:58] other classrooms to create problems solve for teacher concerns [2:21:03] we believe that these modifications will improve the effectiveness of the plan and respond also to concerns raised by [2:21:10] teachers [2:21:17] so um erica could you send me that i that that was a lot of material i was [2:21:22] wondering if you could just either present it to the board you know [2:21:27] some other way or um maybe just send send the board um and post on the [2:21:33] website what you just read um i can send it and then we'll we would post it [2:21:38] um and just document it yeah i would just send it in we can post this on the board website [2:21:45] yep thank you [2:21:56] does anybody have questions on those recommendations [2:22:02] i do this is julie i well i just think i need a little bit more understanding and i think this is a [2:22:09] question for nikki as it relates to the num number four that was um out of the different items under [2:22:17] broaden accommodation what percent or how many teachers did we [2:22:23] have asked for accommodations that were not given those accommodations or [2:22:30] have are currently moved to the hybrid model um [2:22:36] what does that number look like i don't know if you're able to share that with me specifically but i'm just trying to get a feel for what [2:22:43] what that because to me that's that's the number one piece here with [2:22:48] the success of a hybrid model is making sure that our teachers feel [2:22:54] confident in their ability to teach so i list everything else i mean this work [2:22:59] is all so unbelievably incredible in the layers and and the we call it the [2:23:05] blooming onion right that keeps going but like to me the crux is [2:23:10] we need to make sure that our teachers so are in a position that if they need an [2:23:16] accommodation because i'm a spouse and i i just if you could walk me through [2:23:22] what the process was for um layering the tears on who got the [2:23:27] accommodations how that process worked i think that might help me understand a little bit more um i do like that the broad and the [2:23:35] um that that is one of these asks but if you could give a little bit more so i just have more understanding on how we [2:23:41] how it was um prioritized evaluated and and what the how the preferences came down so [2:23:49] thank you julie for the question um just to back up a little bit we're still in the conversation process [2:23:56] with our teachers and so i can i can tell you um i'm through three out of our schools [2:24:02] so that's that's where i'm at right now as i've been through three and out of those three schools i have less than [2:24:08] five teachers that need some additional conversation in order to have them successfully [2:24:14] transition back into the classroom i had i have more to go so i'm i'm not [2:24:20] discounting that but i do not have like a firm number district-wide but we did have a broad level [2:24:26] conversation with our principals um asking them you know this question when it comes to [2:24:32] the current accommodation model are we going to be able are we staffing this and we're at the point where we can staff [2:24:39] this but if um it and it and have those conversations and take those sticky [2:24:44] points and try to smooth them over but we just need some time to do that and i'm not sure if i want to go [2:24:50] really far i mean there's two different types of accommodations um there's accommodations for the [2:24:55] individual and there's accommodations i'm going to call it loose accommodations which aren't necessarily [2:25:00] legal accommodations but still important considerations for us to take um to kin center and [2:25:07] making placements and so that was like one of the components that you look at is is it an employee who needs the [2:25:14] accommodation for themselves or is it an employee who needs a combination for a family member or a more distant family member and so [2:25:21] that's one very simple delineation between um looking at accommodations but like i [2:25:28] said i the we we work closely with the principals and the informations that the employee [2:25:34] provided us to make those initial placements but they're just that initial placements [2:25:40] and if we just need a little time to continue to work through um the sticky points and [2:25:47] the the places where we don't have complete alignment yet but i'm confident that we can get there [2:25:54] does that help julie what follow-up questions do you have for me well i i i guess i i'm not then [2:26:01] so it was it legally an individual teacher if they have a medical um i don't know [2:26:09] accommodation that they're asking for in this because of the nature of [2:26:15] covid it i don't know how you can separate somebody who lives in their [2:26:21] house i mean i guess that's where i'm like how how it got how the latter [2:26:29] worked and i i don't know if i'm not being clear but i just i feel like i need to be have a better understanding on how we [2:26:37] went through that because and we need to expand that more and i [2:26:42] know it's a matter of conversations and working but i i know um i know we also need to get [2:26:49] this plan moving and i i know that hybrid could work and it should work [2:26:54] and we've done work for it but i got to make sure that our teachers are all in a good spot um and [2:27:02] maybe that's too much to ask i just i'm i i've had coven myself so [2:27:08] the impact is huge for family yeah [2:27:15] so julie we know that um we have teachers that have requested [2:27:21] accommodations based either upon their own or family uh for which the initial placement did not um [2:27:30] match their accommodation request so we do know that and we know that from the emails we're receiving [2:27:38] we as when i say we so um janie eric and i we would we want the [2:27:44] process to continue so we want to continue to talk to those teachers because perhaps if you talk to them and you say here are [2:27:49] the different things that we can do to set up your classroom if they reach a comfort level they go okay i'm good with it [2:27:55] then we would continue but if they continue to say i need an accommodation that's what [2:28:02] we're looking for we're looking for a broader definition by saying okay if you need an accommodation you do not [2:28:07] have to go into a hybrid classroom that we can pull back for that particular teacher or [2:28:13] whether it's five teachers whatever we don't know the number yet so we're looking for a process that [2:28:18] continues the conversation because for example some people have requested um [2:28:24] personal protective equipment okay the accommodation we can provide but where the concern continues [2:28:31] and the conversation doesn't work we want we're looking for the board to [2:28:38] say that we should have a broader definition of who we should accommodate because we think that our definition [2:28:44] might be too narrow you should know that this all these issues have been discussed within the committee with [2:28:50] administration these aren't things that i mean we talked to nikki about it today we talked [2:28:55] to john we've been talking about what to do with teachers who have [2:29:02] mismatched and matt i thought your question earlier was if we have 23 [2:29:09] percent of our people that want eva are we you know going to make sure that [2:29:15] we have 23 percent of the teachers that get eva or might it be more teachers that get [2:29:20] eva because of accommodation needs that was my question yeah and so not not to take but [2:29:28] i think that what we've tried to do is to match the eba placement of the teachers to the eva [2:29:36] request of the students that's not lining up perfectly at least [2:29:42] not right nor would it be i mean it'd be a miracle if it did no i understand that [2:29:47] yes right so so the goal of what we are suggesting that the board [2:29:54] incorporate is to say if you can't match up directly we might have to scale back on the [2:30:00] percentage of hybrid classes and by the way we want hybrid to go forward all right anybody who's listening they [2:30:06] should be clear we want hybrid to go forward but we might have to scale back on the percentage of hybrid we might have to [2:30:11] look at it differently so for example you might have students who are in school for five hybrid classes and one [2:30:18] of them is the teacher is remoting in and so in that particular case [2:30:23] we meet the need of the teacher who has a particular need for accommodation [2:30:28] and they will remote in that we'd have to have a paraprofessional there is a cost involved in each of [2:30:34] these things yes we've tried to we have a very compressed time frame so [2:30:40] if we're trying to figure out costs at the same time we're figuring out accommodations and interests and so [2:30:48] i think i may have answered more of your question and possibly some of you well no i think [2:30:53] that's helpful it's hard to say yes i'm in support of expanding the definition of accommodations when i don't know what [2:31:00] the original definition of accommodations was yeah so julia julia that's a really good [2:31:05] point and just one more follow-on quickly is i think it's good to level set so erica you gave that overview which i think was [2:31:11] really helpful contacts but just so those watching understand what's happening right now is [2:31:16] we as a board the seven of us can't move at the speed that the administration needs to right now so the seven of us set up a [2:31:23] three-person governance committee and that consists of erica lenny and janie and therefore [2:31:29] they are having additional conversations on a real-time basis with the administration on behalf of the board [2:31:35] that is not a normal way that we function throughout the average school year so that's why right now in real time [2:31:41] you're hearing four of us board members here at the same time as others certain concerns that are coming up and [2:31:46] characterization which is why ellen asked if we could see that in writing for digestion anything i just want to clarify that [2:31:52] people understand why we're asking each other questions because it's a little different the way we normally conduct ourselves but this [2:31:58] is helpful and can i just i just want for clarification purposes only so that um anybody who's either [2:32:06] just starting to watch when we talk about having teachers um virtually um [2:32:15] what's what is your term randy i can't think virtual delivery of instruction we are not talking about [2:32:22] the elementary we are not that that recommendation is not for the elementary level it is for specific [2:32:27] classes where it would work at a secondary level i just want to make sure people are very clear that they [2:32:33] heard that nuance that erica had said um because we know that that does not work at an element at a primary level [2:32:40] and they're they're just janie there might be a small exception to that for some [2:32:47] unusual circumstances but typically that is not the model that we would build at [2:32:52] elementary around that accommodation piece right right i just wanted to make sure that nuance was was [2:32:57] teased out a little bit so from my voice wait actually could you explain that [2:33:04] again i'm not sure what what are you saying [2:33:09] so the recommendation that the governance committee spoke about was at a secondary level if we reach a point [2:33:17] where we cannot come to an agreement on an accommodation for a teacher to go into eva [2:33:25] and we need their teaching capacity to be in the hybrid model we want the district to explore the [2:33:33] possibility of that teacher delivering content from a remote location while the students are within their [2:33:40] hybrid day at the school and being supervised and supported by paraprofessionals within the classroom [2:33:47] and like randy said there are going to be some nuances where maybe that is going to need to happen at the primary level but for [2:33:53] this specific purpose we are talking about [2:33:58] not being able to reach those mutual agreements on the accommodations at the secondary level with staff [2:34:05] does that make sense i can explain am i is there a part of it you want me to [2:34:11] explain more ellen or well perhaps you and is this to maintain [2:34:17] the uh secondary uh licensure so that if you're in particular subjects [2:34:26] so are are we even with this are we maintaining um our our teachers yes teaching in the [2:34:33] licensed area yes we are maintaining that absolutely yes okay i just i wanted to make sure i [2:34:39] was hearing that yeah or that somebody would say that tonight right um and um and so can you tell me [2:34:47] why you're making uh a difference why why this is different than for the [2:34:53] primary versus secondary the difference is because we don't think that it's [2:34:58] realistic to have a teacher be remote and then have a class but just a [2:35:05] paraprofessional because so much of what the elementary school teachers do is working within the class [2:35:12] classroom environment and so we think that that model doesn't work as well for [2:35:17] elementary schools so that's why our suggestion was if we are in a situation where we [2:35:24] have teachers that are uncomfortable and can't make it back to the classroom [2:35:29] that we deploy them elsewhere in the district as like a tosa or working with literacy [2:35:36] working on interventions and doing maintaining the ability to um do that [2:35:41] virtual for their health and safety and then hire additional teachers to come into [2:35:48] the classroom because i think that we're going to get into situations where we need teaching staff and we maybe [2:35:55] don't have staff that meets the need and so that's why we sort of parsed the suggestion into two different [2:36:02] areas one for elementary school where we would replace with another teacher and then for i think we have more [2:36:09] creative options at the secondary level where um teachers could [2:36:15] remote work in and have a para basically monitor the class as opposed to a lot of the hands of the [2:36:22] elementary school level so by the way on if our teachers and our administrators say that they can [2:36:29] work a model where an elementary teacher can go remote we're not stepping in and saying no [2:36:36] we're trying to work within our limited knowledge and if there are certain assumptions that are incorrect we absolutely look for [2:36:43] our teachers and administrators to say you know if we do this tweak we can follow what your recommendation is [2:36:49] but what erica just explained is the gist of the thought process [2:36:58] yes i did thank you erica to reaffirm what matt said to the community [2:37:03] this four of us have not heard of this proposal yet and so that's why we're walking through this with such [2:37:09] elementary questions um i've got a question about scale first off maybe nikki this is yours so [2:37:16] i i'm working with numbers in my head we had about 50 of our teachers who were [2:37:24] not comfortable with hybrid and wanted eva and 50 who are comfortable with hybrid um [2:37:31] what percentage here of our uh eva preferring teachers [2:37:38] are in this condition where we might have them do uh some [2:37:44] some sort of virtual instruction into the hybrid environment [2:37:52] i think that's more of a randy question when it comes to because he worked with the principals on [2:37:58] the placements but in elementary in particular um you have both the you have an eva placement and your [2:38:04] have a hybrid placement and those are separate but in secondary they're more intertwined and so like i [2:38:10] said i will i defer to our principles on that question unless i understood the question incorrectly [2:38:17] so are we talking 50 teachers that this this proposal would accommodate are we [2:38:22] talking five are we talking a hundred um i don't think that's necessarily at this [2:38:29] point and i've been asking to quantify it just like you owen for like [2:38:34] for the last week because i'm like and i think that the reality is is because we're still [2:38:40] part of an iterative process to understand um [2:38:45] you what would make you feel comfortable in a classroom when you requested the [2:38:51] virtual environment and you brought up some things like the plexiglass and things like that so i think that's [2:38:58] one subset of what we're talking about is there are teachers that would be comfortable [2:39:03] coming back with certain parameters to quantify the other subset i think [2:39:09] there's going to be teachers that even if we offer plexiglass and this and whatever [2:39:16] they're just not going to be comfortable coming back to the classroom and so what we're trying to mitigate is still being [2:39:22] able to do our hybrid model and still accommodate teachers that [2:39:27] are are say i cannot come back to the classroom because my spouse has cancer or something like that i'm not [2:39:33] comfortable as a leadership saying you have to come back to the classroom so how can we be [2:39:38] creative to come up with some other solutions so you don't have to come back to the classroom [2:39:44] you stay at home and remote in to secondary um but i know you're looking for a [2:39:49] quantity and i just i don't think we can realistically give a quantity right now [2:39:55] okay uh so my next question sort of tied to that then when would all this shake out in a [2:40:02] couple of days um by the beginning of week three i have a sense of that nikki [2:40:09] so oh and i think um with the recommendation that in front of us what i would recommend is [2:40:16] for us to go back and do some work and and continue on with the interactive [2:40:26] process that nikki is leading get our two letters together and our measured rollout and maybe by [2:40:33] then we would have a little bit more uh quant you know and [2:40:38] because this is all new to me i mean right now i haven't had [2:40:45] nikki and randy really comment on that does that make sense to you nick and randy on on doing that it does one [2:40:52] thing i just want because i know the public is listening to this is just um eva placement does not mean that [2:40:57] employee received an accommodation and so those those two things are not equated um it's part of the process but [2:41:03] i want to be very cautious for our community to assume that an eva teacher placement has anything to do with any type of an [2:41:10] accommodation so i want to i know that's a conversation we're having a as a as a board in administration right [2:41:16] now but those two things don't equate um but yes definitely with with the new considerations i want to work with randy [2:41:23] and our principals and john to make sure that we can continue to staff this model [2:41:28] okay okay i've got a couple of other questions here so just so i get a visual on this so what we're talking here is we're [2:41:36] talking about a teacher would be given accommodations and would be teaching remotely into a [2:41:42] virtual classroom and this virtual classroom would always have a para is that an understanding here yes if [2:41:50] they'd go into a hybrid classroom then that classroom would have a paraprofessional dedicated to them [2:41:55] for classroom management and would this para be trained in the area of instruction let's say it's a high-level calculus class [2:42:02] uh would they have that kind of training or would it be more like a proctor uh how [2:42:09] do you envision that the pair's role in this i would say more from a classroom management proctoring [2:42:16] perspective i don't think that we can have the expectations our pairs [2:42:22] are going to be subject matter experts and help um for things like that [2:42:29] okay that's what the teacher would be there so okay great i just wanted to get a sense of what the expectation was there [2:42:34] then another thing i think he said this erica that we'd be thinking about hiring additional teachers [2:42:41] so i want to explore that for a little bit because obviously that's got a significant budget impact [2:42:46] um are our open enrollment numbers expanding to make this [2:42:52] fiscally possible where would we get it the funds for the additional teachers [2:42:57] could anybody talk to that for a moment so i don't there is some dollars from [2:43:04] the feds um we're still working on we john just got that information this [2:43:12] week so um we're working on that i know there's some dollars that will [2:43:18] end they we have to spend them by the 31st of this december [2:43:23] which does not work well with staffing so we're trying to figure out what that looks like we do know there is some [2:43:29] dollars that we can use throughout the year [2:43:34] but i don't have all those numbers yet we're working on that so in light of what you're asking [2:43:41] me to look at that would be something we can tie into to see if if these recommendations uh make sense [2:43:52] yeah that's where scale starts getting significant because if we're talking we're two teachers it's not that big a [2:43:58] deal but if we're talking 100 teachers that's a whole different proposition [2:44:04] can i just jump in real quick matt that's why i think it's important to reiterate that this would be something that we would be [2:44:10] in favor of once the interactive process of trying to work things out [2:44:16] with other accommodations had been exhausted and that the the teacher had um [2:44:23] a real true need for an accommodation right like it's it's not just a blanket that this is [2:44:30] what's out there it this is a kind of additional step that we can take [2:44:37] in this interactive process so the teacher hiring would be at the elementary level not secondary yeah and what i was going [2:44:44] to add on there was i you know as treasurer john tope and i have calls pretty frequently you know even in between the finance and facility [2:44:51] monthly meetings and so that one-off usage of federal funds can be applied to some of these [2:44:57] needs for ppe or otherwise owen but they can't be used for ongoing staffing just as a clarification point [2:45:02] and again same as you i'm hearing some of these recommendations at the same time so i think what the governance committee is asking [2:45:09] for is and you know julia good questions too and ellen i know all of us need to see this i need to see him too but i think you guys are asking [2:45:15] for us to give a broader support that this is where we're headed goes back to the admin team then comes [2:45:21] back again and then we start filtering it into budget and seeing what the final teacher numbers and things are that that's where we are right erica yes [2:45:28] because my concern is approving a hybrid model that we don't have creative ways we can actually [2:45:36] staff and so i think that the worst thing we can do as a board is to improve a hybrid model and not [2:45:44] understand how we're going to staff it um and so to me this gives additional [2:45:50] leeway to um nikki and john to come up with some creative ways to [2:45:57] staff the hybrid model to make sure that we can keep our commitment to the hybrid model [2:46:02] we also suggested the um additional week which might not be necessary but if we [2:46:10] are if we are going to have more complex staffing um [2:46:15] we need to make sure that we give the district and the teachers enough time to go through this process to get people [2:46:22] staffed to train people on safety protocols um and make sure our staff is [2:46:29] comfortable and ready to bring students in and i think that this is something that we can't [2:46:35] um short because we the last thing we want are teachers that [2:46:41] are anxious and nervous about being in the classroom because that's not going to make a successful hybrid model yeah [2:46:48] yeah i fully agree with you said i would just say on balance without applying additional pressure [2:46:53] some feedback i've received one off from parents is that the distance learning program can [2:46:58] kind of be clicking from day one so my kid starts learning materials especially at middle and high school concerns with western elementary if [2:47:06] hybrid is still doing syllabus evaluation and a lot of socialization [2:47:11] the more that gets extended week by week i'd like to know that perhaps that the delivery of the work or people to hear [2:47:18] that will still continue so we're talking about the co-localization of kids and hybrid [2:47:24] with teachers may need a bit more of a softening or trajectory that's a little more sloped over the first three weeks [2:47:30] if the administration deems it necessary however that will not slow the rate of learning [2:47:35] going on for either of the two paths in the first three weeks so just if that's the clarification then i'm in full support [2:47:41] of it i just wanted to make sure that's what i'm hearing yes there's a question i have two mental [2:47:47] yes great thank you ellen sorry [2:47:54] yeah i i i'd like a a commitment from the administration on [2:48:01] when they would be able to tell the parents and community of whether this [2:48:09] is uh that whether or when we will be able to staff whether or not hybrid is going to be a go so i'm i'm [2:48:17] just it this seems as if it's still we we don't know they they don't have a time that they [2:48:24] can start making plans around aren't we voting tonight we're voting [2:48:29] tonight but we haven't been told that they can staff it from my perspective hybrid [2:48:36] should go forward i view if there's a mismatch that there's a [2:48:42] potential that hybrid might exist for 65 of the students rather than 77 of [2:48:49] students or 80 percent of the time for 77 percent of the students [2:48:54] but my concern really is i'm not prepared to approve a hybrid [2:49:00] model that doesn't have a broader accommodation [2:49:05] and it's just a matter of how by that i mean accommodation for the teacher requests for eba [2:49:13] it's just a matter of what series of steps might get us to a product and i do know that that [2:49:20] means that if i have a student who's in hybrid i might not know if that's 100 hybrid or 80 [2:49:25] hybrid we're still working you know from uh governor's order from i [2:49:32] think july 30th everything's happening really quick so we're doing as fast as we can as quick [2:49:37] as we can to get to a model but as erica said we don't want to [2:49:42] approve a model that we can't staff right so i'm just making sure what i'm [2:49:49] hearing and john i have a i have two questions for you [2:49:55] are you comfortable with moving forward with [2:50:01] this hybrid model do you know that we can um [2:50:07] [Music] that we can staff it i mean i i'm just saying [2:50:13] is it is it really a goal or or not so the [2:50:20] um i believe it is a goal i think with some of the questions that you're raising it adds another um [2:50:29] dimension that you're asking us to look at from a staffing perspective so um [2:50:35] we will need time um because you asked ellen when when does the [2:50:41] community get this the community and the parents will get this when you when you ultimately approve it so um [2:50:48] i i think uh nikki i think randy myself need time with our teaching staff and [2:50:53] with our principals to um um answer those questions that you [2:51:00] you've put out there with the broadening situation uh broad broadening i don't know exactly [2:51:06] what you did but broadening situation with teacher preferences and um because there is a if we broaden [2:51:13] it and we begin to hire more paras uh to manage classrooms while teachers [2:51:20] teach remotely there's a cost to that and i believe i have to inform you of what that cost is [2:51:25] so um so i think we should what i would recommend is keep this [2:51:32] iterative for the meeting and thinking maybe we have our next [2:51:38] board work session on this on wednesday and i'll keep you apprised between now and wednesday [2:51:45] to see where we're at with our staffing and um and if we're ready to do that we [2:51:51] could do it on wednesday and seek approval on wednesday if not we would just extend it out to accommodate [2:51:57] the staffing process nikki and randy does that make sense to [2:52:02] you they've left yep no i think that that [2:52:09] would make sense in terms of a timeline [2:52:20] john what your proposal is then that we would vote on these proposals that eric has submitted to us um next [2:52:26] wednesday is that if that's what the board wants there's a resolution that i'm putting [2:52:32] forward tonight that approves the hybrid um you could approve that tonight and then [2:52:41] i bring back the follow-up and with that it's it's really your it's [2:52:47] really the board's call it's my my recommendation and my thought [2:52:52] that we would vote on the model tonight i think it's important [2:52:57] we have teachers the school system on monday we have a community that is very anxious [2:53:04] i think it's important that we vote on the model tonight my proposal is that we vote on them the [2:53:09] model with the two caveats being that we are offering another week [2:53:18] if you feel like you need it and we would like you to broaden [2:53:23] um our definition of accommodations which i think will [2:53:29] actually get us closer to staffing the hybrid model not further away so i'm comfortable with voting on the [2:53:37] hybrid tonight uh what i feel more comfortable with us on the four proposals [2:53:42] to give us a little time and communi and the time to and for the community to react on the [2:53:48] four proposals um so i think it's reasonable to vote [2:53:54] for the hybrid tonight um and so that's a procedural question i do [2:54:00] have a substantive question uh and so we're thinking about pushing back the [2:54:06] start of the school year a week would we extend the school year a week would we [2:54:12] how would we make up some lost educational time what's the uh the idea on that [2:54:18] so it's my understanding uh from your proposal america is that you are proposing a week [2:54:26] of um virtual for that through that additionally if that's what [2:54:33] the district feels is appropriate right there has to be some sort of uh we [2:54:39] can't just postpone a week with no education being provided we have had because we've run out of [2:54:45] time yep would it be helpful as a process owen [2:54:50] might be helpful for me erica if we just slowly one more time walk through those four or five because [2:54:56] on first blush it didn't feel like that was anything that any of us might have real conflict with as long as we [2:55:02] understand what it means could we just kind of go through those one at a time because that might get comfort amongst the group to [2:55:07] be able to vote on all of it